Bronson
Stocking | @BronsonStocking | Posted:
Feb 26, 2021 6:15 PM
More good news on the
coronavirus front. A panel of FDA advisors voted unanimously on Friday to
recommend the agency approve drugmaker Johnson & Johnson's one-dose
coronavirus vaccine in the United States. Following the recommendation by the
FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee, the FDA is
expected to approve the vaccine for emergency use in the coming days.
Johnson & Johnson's
vaccine will be the third coronavirus vaccine to receive FDA approval, but the
first vaccine requiring just one shot for vaccination. The drug showed a 66
percent effectiveness against moderate to severe COVID-19 infections and about
an 85 percent effectiveness against the most serious illnesses. While two other
FDA-approved vaccines have efficacy rates in the 90s, Johnson & Johnson's
drug was shown to prevent 100 percent of hospitalizations in a clinical study
of around 44,000 participants in the United States.
"This is a vaccine
to prevent you from going to the hospital and dying at a level that’s certainly
comparable" to the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, said Dr. Paul Offit, a
member of the FDA's advisory panel and vaccine expert at Children's Hospital of
Philadelphia.
Unlike the vaccines
developed by Pfizer and Moderna, Johnson & Johnson's vaccine candidate does
not to be stored in freezers and remains stable for months in refrigerated
temperatures.
In the United States,
over 44 million Americans have received at least one dose of the two-dose
vaccines developed by Pfizer and Moderna, according to the AP. Nearly 20 million
Americans have now received both doses.
Around 3 to 4 million
doses of the new vaccine are expected to be shipped out next week if the drug
receives emergency-use approval from the FDA. The company has pledged to
deliver some 20 million doses by April and 100 million by late June.
Approval may come as
early as this weekend.
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