The efficacy of the New Jersey-headquartered medical giant’s
vaccine also varies by location — but was found to be 85 percent effective in
preventing severe cases leading to hospitalization or death, medical
publication Stat News reported.
“In a pandemic, if you can, with a single-dose vaccine, very
quickly eliminate the severe consequences of death, hospitalization, and severe
disease, that’s what’s important for society,” Paul Stoffels, Johnson &
Johnson’s chief scientific officer, told Stat News.
After 28 days, the one-shot vaccine was found to be 72
percent effective in the US, 66 percent in Latin America and 57 percent in
South Africa, the outlet reported.
The global study included 44,325 participants — 468 of whom
developed symptomatic cases of the bug.
Moderna’s two-shot vaccine has shown to be 94 percent
effective, while Pfizer/BioNTech’s version, which is also administered in two
doses, had an efficacy rate of about 95 percent.
Moderna and Pfizer’s vaccines — which are required to be
stored in ultra-cold temperatures — use mRNA technology to boost the body’s own
cells into making a key viral protein.
Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine is adenovirus-based and uses
double-stranded DNA to create an immune response. The vaccine candidate that’s
being developed by AstraZeneca/Oxford uses a similar technology.
Eric Topol, director and founder of the Scripps Research
Translational Institute, told Stat News that Johnson & Johnson’s interim
results were “disappointing.”
But he noted the importance of its efficacy at preventing
serious cases of COVID.
“It reinforces how lucky we were that the first two were
more effective,” Topol said.
Earlier this month, Johnson & Johnson announced its
vaccine production was delayed, saying it’s fallen behind its target of making
12 million jabs available by the end of February.
It may now take the company until late April to catch up.