Johnson & Johnson Single-Shot COVID-19 Vaccine Shows Positive Results on Activity Against Delta Variant

Recent data from the Johnson & Johnson single-shot COVID-19 vaccine showed strong, persistent activity against the rapidly spreading Delta variant and other SARS-CoV-2 viral variants. Additionally, the data showed that the durability of the immune response lasted through approximately 8 months, which is the length of time evaluated to date, according to Johnson & Johnson.

“Current data for the eight months studied so far show that the single-shot Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine generates a strong neutralizing antibody response that does not wane; rather, we observe an improvement over time. In addition, we observe a persistent and particularly robust, durable cellular immune response,” said Mathai Mammen, MD, PhD, global head at Janssen Research & Development, Johnson & Johnson, in a press release. “With each new dataset, we build on our solid foundation of evidence that our single-shot COVID-19 vaccine plays a critical role in ending the pandemic, which continues to evolve and pose new challenges to global health.”

The preprint submitted by the company consists of a new analysis from blood samples obtained from a subset of participants in the phase 3 ENSEMBLE study. The findings show that the Johnson & Johnson single-shot COVID-19 vaccine caused neutralizing antibody activity versus the Delta variant at a higher level than what was recently observed for the Beta variant in South Africa.

The ENSEMBLE trial showed 85% efficacy against severe and critical disease and demonstrated protection against hospitalization and death, according to Johnson & Johnson. Further, the vaccine was consistently effective across all regions studied globally, including in South Africa and Brazil, where a high prevalence of Beta and Zeta variants were found during the study period, according to Johnson & Johnson.

REFERENCE

Positive New Data for Johnson & Johnson Single-Shot COVID-19 Vaccine on Activity Against Delta Variant and Long-lasting Durability of Response. Janssen. July 1, 2021. Accessed July 7, 2021. https://www.janssen.com/positive-new-data-johnson-johnson-single-shot-covid-19-vaccine-activity-against-delta-variant-and