European Commission backs Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 booster for adults
pharmafile | December 16, 2021 | News story | Business Services |
The EC has recommended a booster dose of Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine at least two months after a first dose in people aged 18 years and older, as Europe struggles in the face of surging infection rates. The decision could allow European countries to speed up booster drives.
The EMA has already shared that mixing different COVID-19 shots for initial vaccine schedules and boosters can increase government flexibility in responding to the new Omicron variant. The EMA has said that its recommendation to allow boosters of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine follows data which showed the additional shot led to a rise in antibodies against SARS-CoV-2.
The EMA advised that countries should consider offering an extra shot of the vaccine to those aged 18 and older at least two months after the initial dose, and an advisory committee also concluded that the jab can be used as a follow-up to two doses of the Moderna or Pfizer vaccines.
The Omicron variant, with up to 38 mutations in its spike protein, is known to evade vaccine efficacy.
A study led by researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), Harvard and MIT, tested blood from people who received the Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, and Pfizer BioNTech vaccines, against a pseudovirus engineered to resemble the Omicron variant.
“The study demonstrates that Omicron drastically escapes vaccine-induced immunity after primary vaccination series with mRNA-1273 (Moderna), BNT162b2 (PfizerBioNTech) or Ad26.COV2.S (Johnson & Johnson/Janssen) and exhibits increased infectivity in vitro, raising the potential for increased transmissibility,” said Wilfredo F. Garcia-Beltran, Department of Pathology, MGH at Boston.
Ana Ovey
