Johnson & Johnson's coronavirus vaccine has shown 66 percent effectiveness in preventing moderate to severe COVID-19, according to interim data released during the third phase of clinical trials. This is reported by Financial Time.
The level of vaccine efficacy for the drug is lower than that of analogues developed by BioNTech / Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca. However, these figures cannot be directly compared due to the fact that mild cases of COVID-19 were excluded from the study results. The vaccine has shown some protection against variant 501.V2, which first appeared in South Africa, although it was 57 percent effective in trials there.
Almost 44 thousand people participated in the test. A total of 468 symptomatic cases of COVID-19 were reported, which occurred in both the placebo and vaccine groups. It is noted that the effectiveness of the vaccine against only severe cases was 85 percent. It also reported that the protection was the same for all age groups, including people over 60.
The company intends to apply for permission to use the vaccine in early February.
