Johnson &Johnson has begun human trials of its coronavirus vaccine after publishing results of its study on monkeys showing it the 'best vaccine candidate',offering protection from the infectious virus in one single dose. According to the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine study on monkeys, 6 out of 6 who got its vaccine did not get any lung disease while 5 of them remained protected from the infection when they were exposed to the coronavirus.
"I Have Never Seen a Moment So Rich in Collaboration, Ingenuity and Acts of Bravery," Johnson & Johnson announces it has identified a lead COVID-19 vaccine candidate.
Johnson &Johnson begins human trials of coronavirus vaccine | What's latest
According to the study published in the journal Nature, the results of vaccine on monkeys were observed on the basis of the presence of the virus in the nasal swabs.
Data published in Nature showed that Janssen's investigational vaccine elicited an immune response against SARS-CoV-2 in a preclinical, nonhuman study.
Dr Paul Chief Scientific officer of J&J said, "this gives us confidence that we can test a single-shot vaccine in this epidemic and learn whether it has aprotective effect in humans," HT quoted him as saying.
J&J has begun early-stage human trials in United States, Belgium.
J&J vaccine would be tested on more than 1,000 healthy people aged between 18-55 years and also adults between age group 65 and above.
Johnson &Johnson said the findings give them confidence as they progress the vaccine development and upscale manufacturing in parallel.
The company further said having initiated a Phase 1/2a trial in July with the intention to move into a Phase 3 trial in September.
Johnson &Johnson is deploying full strength of its science, scale and expertise to help fight the pandemic as COVID-19 continues to affect people and communities across the world.
The US government is supporting J&J in its vaccine development by injecting $456 million as part of its funding.