ZURICH (SWITZERLAND) – Johnson & Johnson started US human safety trials for its potential COVID-19 vaccine on Thursday. This comes after the firm released details of a study in monkeys that showed the shot offering strong protection in a single dose.
Six out of six monkeys who got the shot were protected from the lung disease when exposed to the virus and five out of six animals were protected from the infection, according to the study published in the journal Nature.
“This gives us confidence that we can test a single-shot vaccine in this epidemic and learn whether it has a protective effect in humans,” Dr Paul Stoffels, J&J’s chief scientific officer, said.
The pharma company said it had started early-stage human trials in the United States and Belgium and 1,000 healthy adults are involved in the testing and they are aged between 18 and 55 years and there are those above 65.
The human trials in the US is supported by the government with a funding of $456 million (350.8 million pounds), which is aimed at speeding up the production of a shot by the end of this year.
Stoffels said earlier tests of this type of vaccine in other diseases revealed that the second shot significantly enhanced protection. But in a pandemic. a singe shot vaccine has a greater advantage.
There will be one or two analysed during the phase 1 trial.
Depending on its results, the firm will start large-scale phase three trials with a single shot in the second half of September. Simultaneously, it will also undertake a phase three study of a two-shot regimen.
The firm’s shot uses a common cold virus known as adenovirus type 26 or Ad26 to carry coronavirus proteins into cells, causing the body to mount an immune defense against the virus.
(Photos syndicated via Reuters)
This story has been edited by BH staff and is published from a syndicated field