(Reuters) – Johnson & Johnson said on Friday that its single-dose vaccine was 66% effective in preventing COVID-19 in a major global trial against several variants, giving health officials another weapon to fight the pandemic.
In the study of nearly 44,000 volunteers, the level of moderate and severe protection against COVID-19 ranged from 72% in the United States to 66% in Latin America and only 57% in South Africa, where a worrying variant spread. .
The data showed that the effect of the vaccine on the South African variant was diminished compared to the unaltered virus, but infectious disease and public health experts said it could continue to help contain the spread of the virus and prevent death.
Data from Novavax’s mid-term studies on Thursday also documented lower efficacy in South Africa.
Rival imaging from Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna were both about 95% effective in preventing symptomatic disease in essential studies when given in two doses.
These studies were conducted mainly in the United States and before the advent of new variants. This means that the world is fighting against time and with limited resources to vaccinate as many people as possible and quickly, to prevent the virus from growing.
COVID-19 is on the rise in 37 countries, with infections exceeding 101 million globally.
Anthony Fauci, a leading US infectious disease specialist, said the world needs to be vaccinated quickly to try to overcome these changes in the virus.
“It’s really a wake-up call for us to be agile and able to adapt, because this virus will continue for certain to evolve,” Fauci said.
The main goal of J&J was to prevent moderate to severe COVID-19, and the vaccine was 85% effective in stopping severe disease and preventing hospitalization in all geographies and against several variants 28 days after immunization.
This “will potentially protect hundreds of millions of people from the serious and fatal results of COVID-19,” said Paul Stoffels, J & J’s chief scientific officer.
J&J shares fell 4% to $ 162.7 at 1700 GMT, with some Wall Street analysts saying the effectiveness of its vaccine is below that of rivals. Moderna shares gained 8% to $ 172.80.
SEEKING APPROVAL
J&J plans to apply for emergency use authorization from the US Food and Drug Administration next week and will soon follow up with the European Union and the rest of the world.
He said he plans to deliver 1 billion doses of the vaccine, which he will deliver to the United States, Europe, South Africa and India in 2021.
Public health officials rely on it to increase much-needed supply and simplify immunization in the United States, which has a deal to buy 100 million doses of J&J vaccine and an option for another 200 million. .
J&J said the vaccine would be ready immediately after emergency approval, but Stoffels declined to say how many doses.
The key is not only overall effectiveness, but specifically effectiveness against severe illness, hospitalization and death, said Walid Gellad, an associate professor of health policy at the University of Pittsburgh.
The J&J vaccine uses a common cold virus to introduce coronavirus proteins into cells and trigger an immune response, while Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna vaccines use a new technology called RNA messenger.
Unlike these vaccines, J&Js do not require a second shot weeks after the first or must be kept frozen, making it a strong candidate for use in parts of the world where transportation and cold storage are problematic.
“Most countries are still desperate to get their hands on the doses, whether or not the vaccine is considered extremely effective. Moderately effective, it will work very well for the time being “, said Michael Breen, director of infectious diseases and ophthalmology at the research company GlobalData.
‘OVERWHELMED’
Several studies have emerged this month showing that a variant in South Africa has moved to areas of the virus that are key targets for vaccines, reducing their effectiveness.
“What we are learning is that there is a different effectiveness in different parts of the world,” Stoffels told Reuters.
In a sub-study of 6,000 South African volunteers, Stoffels said, the J&J vaccine was 89 percent effective in preventing severe disease. In the South African part of the process, 95% of the cases were infections with the South African variant.
“I am overwhelmed that this vaccine has protected against severe disease even in South Africa,” said Glenda Gray, lead investigator of the South African vaccine study.
In the J&J process, which was conducted in eight countries, 44% of participants were from the United States, 41% from Central and South America, and 15% from South Africa. Just over a third of the volunteers were over 60 years old.
Reporting by Julie Steenhuysen; Additional reporting by Manas Mishra, Dania Nadeem and Manojna Maddipatla in Bengalaru, Rebecca Spalding and Michael Erman in New York and Promit Mukherjee in Johannesburg; Written by Alexander Smith; Editing by Peter Henderson, Edwina Gibbs, Keith Weir and Caroline Humer