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Europe, the US, Canada and the Covax initiative have already ordered more than 800 million doses; Brazil did not buy. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine is given as a single dose.
US regulators formally approved this Sunday (2/28) Johnson & Johnson’s single injection vaccine against coronavirus, the third to be licensed in the country.
This vaccine will potentially have even greater reach in the global fight against coronavirus because it works with a single dose. More than 800 million doses have been ordered worldwide.
The vaccine was created to be an inexpensive alternative to the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines and can be stored in a refrigerator rather than a freezer.
The tests found that it prevented serious illness, but it was 66% effective overall when moderate cases were included.
The vaccine is manufactured by the Belgian company Janssen, controlled by Johnson & Johnson. The company agreed to supply the United States with 100 million doses by the end of June. The first doses may be available to the American public starting next week.
The United Kingdom, the European Union and Canada also ordered the immunizer, and 500 million doses were also ordered through the Covax scheme to supply the poorest nations.
Brazil has no agreements to buy the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
President Joe Biden received the approval as “exciting news for all Americans and an encouraging development,” but cautioned that “the fight is far from over.”
“As we celebrate today’s news, I urge all Americans to continue washing their hands, remain socially distant and continue to wear masks,” he said in a statement.
“As I have said many times, things are likely to get worse again as new variants are rolled out and the current improvement can be reversed.”
The clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) came after an external committee of experts unanimously endorsed the vaccine on Friday.
Results from trials in the US, South Africa, and Brazil have shown it to be more than 85% effective in preventing severe disease and 66% effective overall when moderate cases have been included.
In particular, there were no deaths among the participants who received the vaccine and there was no hospitalization after 28 days after the vaccine.
Overall protection was lower in South Africa and Brazil, where virus variants became dominant, but defense against critical or serious illness was “equally high.”
The following was ordered:
- European Union: 200 million doses
- United States – 100 million doses
- Canada: 38 million doses
- UK: 30 million doses
- Nations Covax – 500 million doses
In Brazil, the National Vaccination Operationalization Plan against Covid-19, prepared in December by the federal government, cited the expectation of obtaining 38 million doses of this vaccine from the second quarter, but at the moment it is only stipulated by a memorandum understanding – no purchase was made.
Single dose
The fact that it works in a single dose and can be stored in a common refrigerator, while others need super cold storage, means that the company’s vaccine can play an important role around the world.
“The World Health Organization (WHO) considers a single-dose vaccine to be the best option in pandemic settings,” said Paul Stoffels, Johnson & Johnson’s chief scientific officer.
He added that the vaccine could “potentially protect hundreds of millions of people from the serious and fatal outcomes of COVID-19.”
The company’s goal is to manufacture 1 billion doses this year.
Production
The Johnson & Johnson vaccine uses a common cold virus that was developed to be harmless.
It then carries part of the genetic code of the coronavirus to the body, but safely. This is enough for the body to recognize the threat and then learn how to fight the coronavirus.
The mechanism trains the body’s immune system to fight the coronavirus when it encounters the real virus.
The process is similar to the approach used in the vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and the AstraZeneca company.
“A single dose regimen with rapid onset of protection and ease of administration and storage offers a potential solution to reach as many people as possible. The ability to prevent hospitalizations and deaths would be a game changer in the fight against the pandemic,” he said Mathai Mammen, Belgian Janssen company.
The results are based on almost 44,000 people who participated in the tests, including in Brazil.
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