J&J reports 2nd dose of vaccine offers protective boost
A booster shot of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine dramatically raises the levels of antibodies against the coronavirus, the company reported Wednesday.
Johnson & Johnson will submit the data to the Food and Drug Administration, which is evaluating similar studies from Pfizer and Moderna. If authorized by the agency, the Biden administration wants to provide booster shots eight months after vaccination.
Pfizer and Biontech said they were applying to the FDA for supplemental approval of a booster shot for those aged 16 and older, and will submit all their supporting data by the end of this week. The move came as the companies said that a third shot of the vaccine sharply increased the levels of antibodies against the virus. The side effects of a third injection were about the same as after the initial two doses, Pfizer and Biontech said.
The Johnson & Johnson vaccine was absent from the government’s initial booster plan, announced last week. But with the new data, the company hopes to be part of the initial distribution of additional shots, which could happen as early as September.
“We look forward to discussing with public health officials a potential strategy for our Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine, boosting eight months or longer after the primary single-dose vaccination,” Dr. Mathai Mammen, the global head of Janssen Research & Development at Johnson & Johnson, said in a statement.
In February, the FDA gave emergency authorization to J&J for its one-shot vaccine. A clinical trial carried out last fall and winter showed that a single shot had a 72% efficacy in preventing symptomatic COVID-19 among U.S. participants. In the trial, none of the vaccinated volunteers were hospitalized or died. J&J carried out its clinical trial before the delta variant became widespread, leaving open the question of how well the vaccine worked against the highly contagious form of the virus. But in a study released earlier this month, South African researchers found that a single shot of the J&J vaccine was up to 95% effective against death from the delta variant, and reduced the risk of hospitalization by 71%.