Covid-19: Johnson & Johnson announces that its vaccine is 66% effective in general
The Johnson & Johnson vaccine has an overall effectiveness of 66% but is said to be injectable in a single dose and easier to store.
© JUSTIN TALLIS / AFP
Text by: RFI Follow
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As the European Union prepares to authorize the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca, which would make it the third to be administered on the continent, Johnson & Johnson has just published the results of the last phase of its clinical trial: 66% d general effectiveness.
It's less than those from Moderna and Pfizer, but it only requires one dose.
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Once again, we have to be content with a press release.
The detailed data will come later in a scientific journal.
More than 40,000 volunteers participated in the clinical trial in 8 countries on three continents: the United States, Latin America, and South Africa.
The volunteers were divided into two groups: one receiving the vaccine, the other a placebo.
During the study, 468 cases of Covid-19 with symptoms were identified.
If the laboratory does not say how they are distributed between the two groups, it still announces 66% general effectiveness in preventing what it defines as cases of Covid-19 of medium severity.
This figure rises to 85% for severe cases and even 100% to avoid hospitalizations and death.
Administered as a single dose
The group also certifies that this level of protection is valid, whatever the age group, but here too, no figures come to support this assertion for the moment.
Finally, the data collected in South Africa allow him to affirm that his vaccine is effective against
the variant from that country
, even if this effectiveness seems to be reduced.
Administered in a single dose, this vaccine therefore responds a priori to the hopes it aroused.
And the group intends to request an emergency use authorization from the US health authorities as early as next week.
In the short term, this vaccine should be the last to arrive on the European market.
For the following ones, like the one developed by Sanofi and GSK, it will be at best by the end of 2021. As for the
Russian vaccine Sputnik V
or those developed in China, no authorization request has yet been made. filed with the European Union.
►Also read: The European Union publishes its contract with the AstraZeneca laboratory
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