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.
Very encouraging that early trials of the vaccine developed by Janssen show it to be effective against coronavirus.
We have secured 30 million doses, and if approved by our medicines regulator we should expect these to be available later this year.
— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) January 29, 2021
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.
JUST IN: Topline interim data analysis from our Phase 3 ENSEMBLE clinical trial for our investigational single-dose #COVID19 vaccine candidate announced: https://t.co/0IYaigbYvV pic.twitter.com/e1zIJr7qSQ
— Johnson & Johnson (@JNJNews) January 29, 2021
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.
GOOD NEWS on the single-dose Janssen vaccine
Our approach of buying abroad & making here in the UK is paying off & I want to say a huge THANK YOU to everybody involved 🇬🇧 pic.twitter.com/X5n2Hw2nfR
— Matt Hancock (@MattHancock) January 29, 2021
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.
