Vaccine manufacturers are studying whether booster doses could provide better protection against coronavirus variants, Andy Slavitt, senior adviser on Covid’s response to the White House, said in an interview with the Washington Post on Thursday.
A White House official said Johnson & Johnson is already studying a second dose of its Covid-19 vaccine and noted that Moderna and Pfizer / BioNTech, which currently have licensed vaccines in the United States, “have plans to continue updating their vaccines and, if necessary, create a booster along the way if there are still additional mutants, as there probably will be. “
Johnson & Johnson has said it is exploring whether it is recommended to reform the Covid-19 vaccine to address the potential impact of new strains. In November, the company announced that it had begun a large-scale phase 3 trial for a two-dose regimen of its coronavirus vaccine.
“If you have the Johnson and Johnson vaccine, could you have another vaccine later?” Slavitt said. “And I will give you two parts to this answer quickly. One of them is: Johnson and Johnson, people may know, are currently evaluating whether, how does their two-dose vaccine work, that is, with their own booster. So, pending the results on that, waiting for what the FDA says if the vaccine is approved in the first place, there will be: there may be a second shot of Johnson and Johnson. “
“More broadly, can it be mixed and matched? If you have one, can you get another one? And the answer is, try to remember which one you had because it’s what’s been tried … but if you forget it, don’t panic. You can take another one and the CDC says it’s okay in that case, “he continued.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s independent advisory committee will meet Feb. 26 to consider whether a single dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is recommended for emergency use authorization.
In a Phase 3 global trial, the single-injection Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine was shown to be 66% effective in preventing moderate to severe disease, but 85% effective against disease. serious, the company previously announced.
“While a potentially safe and effective single-dose COVID-19 vaccine would have significant benefits, especially in a pandemic environment, Janssen’s COVID-19 vaccine program has been designed to be extremely comprehensive and science-driven. As such, we are investigating multiple dosing and dosing regimens to evaluate their long-term efficacy, ”a November statement from J&J said.
Slavitt also said the administration is working to ensure vaccines work against variants.
“Right now we are testing in vitro. … The good news to start with is the most important strain that has come here, B.1.1.7, the vaccines work well: the Pfizer and the Moderna. South Africans, who are close to Brazilians … are … less effective, but above a threshold, “Slavitt said.