Johnson&Johnson vaccine effective against Delta variant - study

(MENAFN - Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) WASHINGTON, July 2 (KUNA) -- Johnson & Johnson announced late Thursday that its single-shot COVID-19 vaccine "generated strong, persistent activity" against the Delta variant.The company said in a statement that the data also showed that "the durability of the immune response lasted through at least eight months." Vice Chairman of the Executive Committee and Chief Scientific Officer at Johnson & Johnson Paul Stoffels said in this regard that the newly announced studies "reinforce the ability of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine to help protect the health of people globally." "We believe that our vaccine offers durable protection against COVID-19 and elicits neutralizing activity against the Delta variant. This adds to the robust body of clinical data supporting our single-shot vaccine's ability to protect against multiple variants of concern," he added.For his part, Mathai Mammen, the company's global head of research and development said "current data for the eight months studied so far show that the single-shot Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine generates a strong neutralizing antibody response that does not wane; rather, we observe an improvement over time." The Janssen COVID-19 vaccine is authorized for use in the US under an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for "active immunization" to prevent COVID-19 caused by "severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in individuals 18 years of age and older." (end) si MENAFN02072021000071011013ID1102381137