J&J Says Data Shows Its Single-shot COVID-19 Vaccine Effective Against Delta And Other Variants

(RTTNews) - Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) said data showed that its single-shot COVID-19 vaccine generated strong, persistent activity against the rapidly spreading Delta variant and other highly prevalent SARS-CoV-2 viral variants.

The data also showed that the durability of the immune response lasted through at least eight months.

A preprint submitted by the company Thursday to bioRxiv contains a new analysis from blood samples obtained from a subset of participants (n=8) in the Phase 3 ENSEMBLE study.

The data showed that the Johnson & Johnson single-shot COVID-19 vaccine elicited neutralizing antibody activity against the Delta variant at an even higher level than what was recently observed for the Beta (B.1.351) variant in South Africa where high efficacy against severe/critical disease was demonstrated.

In the ENSEMBLE trial, Johnson & Johnson's single-dose COVID-19 vaccine was 85 percent effective against severe/critical disease and demonstrated protection against hospitalization and death.

The Janssen COVID-19 vaccine is authorized for use in the U.S. under an Emergency Use Authorization for active immunization to prevent coronavirus disease 2019 caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 or SARS-CoV-2 in individuals 18 years of age and older.

The COVID-19 vaccine received Emergency Use Authorization in the United States on February 27 and Conditional Marketing Authorization by the European Commission on March 11, 2021. The World Health Organization (WHO) issued Emergency Use Listing on March 12, 2021 and the Company received an interim recommendation by the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization for the WHO on March 17, 2021. Many more authorizations have been granted in countries worldwide, and regulatory submissions are ongoing.