Single-Shot Janssen COVID-19 Vaccine ‘Very Encouraging’: Boris Johnson

A clinician prepares to administer investigational Janssen COVID-19 vaccine in September 2020. (Johnson & Johnson via AP)

Clinical trials showing the single-shot Janssen vaccine as being 66 percent effective at preventing the COVID-19 disease are “very encouraging,” British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Friday.

“We have secured 30 million doses, and if approved by our medicines regulator we should expect these to be available later this year,” he wrote on Twitter.

Janssen is a Belgium-based pharmaceutical firm owned by U.S. company Johnson & Johnson.

Among all participants in its phase 3 clinical trial, the Janssen vaccine was 66 percent effective at preventing moderate to severe CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus cases, 28 days after vaccination, the U.S. parent firm announced on Friday.

This came just a day after Novavax announced that its vaccine against the CCP virus was shown to be 89.3 percent effective in a trial in the UK and 60 percent effective in South Africa.

Like the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab, which is already being rolled out across the UK, the Janssen vaccine can be safely stored and transported at standard refrigeration temperatures.

Crucially, the Janssen jab requires just one injection, unlike the Oxford/AstraZeneca and Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines which need two doses given weeks apart.

“A one-shot vaccine is considered by the World Health Organization to be the best option in pandemic settings, enhancing access, distribution, and compliance,” said Paul Stoffels, chief scientific officer at Johnson & Johnson.

“If this jab is approved this could significantly bolster our vaccination programme, especially as a single-dose vaccine,” said Britain’s Health Secretary Matt Hancock.

The UK has secured early access to 367 million doses of seven of the most promising vaccines so far, the government said on Friday.

It said more than 7.4 million people across the UK have now had at least one dose of a CCP virus vaccine.