FDA Panel Greenlights First Single-Shot COVID-19 Vaccine, from Johnson & Johnson

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) vaccine advisory committee earlier today (Feb. 26) voted unanimously to recommend Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use authorization. While the FDA isn’t obligated to follow the committee’s advice, it generally does. At the end of a full day of review and discussion of the company’s shot, all 22 voting members of the committee agreed that the vaccine was safe and effective enough to be used by the public. It’s the third vaccine that the group of independent experts has recommended, following Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna. Unlike the two previous vaccines, J&J’s is a single shot, and can be shipped and stored under refrigerated, not frozen conditions, as the other two require. The single dosing played a part in the committee’s decision. Logistically, vaccinating people one time is much easier than asking them to return for a second dose. “This was a relatively easy call,” Dr. Eric Rubin, editor in chief of the New England Journal of Medicine and professor at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, who voted to recommend the shot said during the discussion. “[The vaccine] clearly gets way over the bar of safety and efficacy, and it’s a single-dose vaccine.” The committee members reviewed data presented by Janssen Pharmaceuticals, the J&J arm that developed the vaccine, as well as FDA scientists’ review of that data. Ja...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 Source Type: news