Johnson & Johnson’s (JNJ) – Get the report According to a report published on Wednesday, the candidate for the single-injection vaccine proved to be safe and generates a significant immune response in an early-stage study.
A single injection of the vaccine “gives lasting antibodies,” Dr. Paul Stoffels, chief scientific officer at J&J, told CNBC. The results gave the company “confidence” that the vaccine would be effective, Stoffels told CNBC.
The results of phase 1-2 studies were published Wednesday in New England Journal of Medicine.
The Johnson & Johnson vaccine candidate is also undergoing phase 3 studies to determine its true effectiveness. The results of this study are expected by the end of this month.
If successful and approved, the vaccine will become the third available to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, which continues to spiral out of control in the United States and much of the world.
Nearly 400,000 Americans have died from the disease and more than 22 million have been infected.
A vaccine jointly developed by Pfizer (FE) – Get the report and BioNTech (BNTX) – Get the report won emergency use approval last month along with a second vaccine from Moderna (MRNA) – Get the report. Both require tracking of booster photos and are stored at very low temperatures, complicating the distribution and development of vaccines. The US is far behind the projected vaccination programs, which had called for 20 million vaccinations by the end of December. Only about 10 million have done so far.
The Johnson and Johnson vaccine requires a single shot and can be stored at higher temperatures. However, its launch is also delayed and will probably not start seriously until April, due to manufacturing delays, assuming it is authorized for use by the FDA.
Shares of Johnson and Johnson rose 1.08% on Wednesday to $ 159.60.