Johnson & Johnson’s Coronavirus vaccine generates promising pre-clinical results

An experimental vaccine candidate called Ad26.COV2.S (A26), currently being produced by Johnson and Johnson, has demonstrated encouraging in early pre-clinical studies. In monkeys, the vaccine triggered a robust immune response, shown by high levels of neutralising antibodies. Johnson and Johnson stated that the immune response successfully prevented subsequent infection and provided near-complete or complete protection from the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

Researchers from Johnson and Johnson immunised the animals with several vaccine candidates. The researchers discovered that A26 obtained the highest levels of neutralising antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 among the seven vaccine prototypes experimented in the trial.

Upon exposure to SARS-CoV-2, each animal receiving a single immunisation with the lead vaccine candidate showed no detectable virus in its lower respiratory tract, and only one displayed shallow levels of the virus in a nasal swab at two points in time.

Due to the promising outcome, Johnson and Johnson have already started a phase I/IIa human clinical trial of the vaccine trials in Belgium and the US. The clinical trial programme will evaluate both 1 and 2-dose regimens of A26 in more than one-thousand health adults aged eighteen to fifty-five years old, in addition to adults aged sixty-five and over.

Chairman of the executive committee and Chief Scientific Officer for Johnson and Johnson, Paul Stoffels, stated: “We are excited to see these pre-clinical data because they show our SARS-CoV-2 vaccine candidate generated a strong antibody response and provided protection with a single dose. The findings give us confidence as we progress our vaccine development and upscale manufacturing in parallel, having initiated a phase I/IIa trial in July with the intention to move into a phase III trial in September.”