Johnson & Johnson announced on Thursday its potential coronavirus vaccine has prevented severe illness in a group of hamsters.
“This pre-clinical study further validates our confidence in our SARS-CoV-2 vaccine candidate,” J&J’s Chief Scientific Officer Paul Stoffels said in a press release. “With our Phase 3 trials planned to start this month, we remain committed to expanding our manufacturing and distribution capabilities to enable global access to our SARS-CoV-2 vaccine candidate should it prove to be safe and effective in humans.”
The hamsters were vaccinated with one dose and then exposed to the virus four weeks later, J&J said.
The vaccine drew neutralizing antibodies that researchers have said the hamsters needed to develop immunity to the virus. The vaccinated hamsters also lost less weight than those unvaccinated and didn’t suffer severe clinical disease, like pneumonia. The findings were published on Thursday in the medical journal Nature Medicine.
On August 5, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced it would purchase 100 million vaccine doses for $1 billion from Janssen, the J&J pharmaceutical subsidiary. The federal government has the option to order 200 million more doses.
J&J said it developed its vaccine by mixing genetic material from the coronavirus with altered adenovirus that brings on common colds.
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