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Johnson & Johnson Krem do Twarzy - Odkryj Tajemnice Zdrowej i Promiennej Skóry
Vaccine Timeline
January, 2020 Johnson & Johnson begins work on a coronavirus vaccine.
March Johnson & Johnson receives $456 million from the United States government to help develop and produce the vaccine.
July A Phase 1/2 trial begins. Unlike the clinical trials for other leading vaccines, the trial involves one dose, not two.
A dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. Michael Ciaglo/Getty ImagesAugust The federal government agrees to pay Johnson & Johnson 800 billion for 100 million doses, if the vaccine is approved.
September Johnson & Johnson launches a Phase 3 trial.
Oct. 8 The European Union reaches a deal to obtain 200 million doses.
Oct. 12 The company pauses its Phase 3 trial to investigate an adverse reaction in a volunteer.
Oct. 23 The trial resumes.
Nov. 16 Johnson & Johnson announces a second Phase 3 trial to observe the effects of two doses of their vaccine, instead of just one.
Dec. 17 Johnson & Johnson announces its Phase 3 trial is fully enrolled, with around 45,000 participants.
January, 2021 Preliminary results from the Phase 3 trial are expected in January. The company is aiming to produce at least a billion doses this year.
Jan. 13 Johnson & Johnson expects to release trial results in as little as two weeks. But the company is falling behind on its original production schedule.
Feb. 27 The Food and Drug Administration authorizes the vaccine for emergency use.
March 2 Merck will help manufacture the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
April A plant in Baltimore run by Emergent BioSolutions ruined 15 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
Coronavirus Updates
Dr. Leana Wen, an emergency physician and professor at George Washington University, says that's a big plus for the J&J vaccine.
"If there are individuals who may not like needles, who may have concerns about returning for a second shot, who may not want the inconvenience of scheduling a second appointment, or who may be concerned that there isn't enough supply of the vaccine at the moment for a second shot — for those individuals, that convenience of being done [after one dose], fully vaccinated, is really important," Wen says.
Still, the J&J vaccine is a little different from the others. Here's what you need to know.
How does the Johnson & Johnson vaccine work?
What's in the vaccine?
After the Johnson & Johnson vaccine was granted emergency use authorization by the FDA, concerns arose about what's in it and how it was made.
The Johnson & Johnson vaccine doesn't contain fetal tissue, but like many other vaccines, it was tested and developed using cells that were derived from fetal tissue decades ago. The cells are commonly used in scientific research because they can replicate easily, which means scientists in effect have an unlimited supply of these "immortalized" cell lines.
"You can grow them very quickly and then they just divide and divide and divide," Kriegstein said.
In vaccine research, human fetal cell lines are used to assess how well the candidates perform. The cells were instrumental, for instance, in the development of vaccines that protect against chickenpox, rubella and polio, Kriegstein said.
"If you're trying to test a vaccine to see if it works effectively and you need to create large numbers of the virus, the quickest way is to grow them in these human cells," he said. "They're perfect hosts for the virus."
Indeed, Johnson & Johnson used cells derived from fetal tissue to grow the adenoviruses needed to manufacture the vaccine. But the cells aren't an ingredient in the vaccines themselves.
"The cells that are used now were never in a fetus — they are not fetal cells," Kriegstein said. "In fact, these cell lines have been used for decades, and they have divided and divided tens of thousands of times, so we're not talking about any cells that actually came directly from a fetus."
When will it be available?
States already got their first batches of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine this week. In addition to the 4 million doses that shipped out Monday, the company is expected to have delivered a total of 20 million doses by the end of the month.
A deal between Johnson & Johnson and Merck was announced Tuesday to speed production of the single-dose vaccine. As was first reported by The Washington Post, the federal government brokered the partnership between the pharmaceutical giants after Biden administration officials learned that Johnson & Johnson had fallen behind on its manufacturing targets.
Johnson & Johnson CEO Alex Gorsky said Monday on NBC's "TODAY" show that the company is aiming to distribute 100 million shots by the end of June and 1 billion by the end of the year.
Erika Edwards is a health and medical news writer and reporter for NBC News and "TODAY."
Denise Chow is a science and space reporter for NBC News.
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Who should get the J&J vaccine?
The vaccine is authorized for people age 18 and older.
How long does it take for protection to kick in?
With all three vaccines, immunity builds over a few weeks after immunization. Data from Johnson & Johnson show that most vaccinated trial participants had a robust immune response 15 days after getting the shot, with significant protection reached by day 29.
Will I be as well protected against getting super sick with COVID-19 if I get the J&J shot as if I get a two-dose version from Pfizer or Moderna?
"When we look at the thing we probably care about most — making sure that we don't end up in the ICU or dying — the efficacy of the three vaccines is virtually identical," says Dr. Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, chair of the department of epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of California, San Francisco.
But you can't really compare those numbers head to head, says Pierre, because "these were different trials in different places at different times," and the strains of the coronavirus running around were likely somewhat different. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine was tested more recently, including in South Africa and Brazil, at a time when more contagious variants of the coronavirus were widely circulating in those countries. The Moderna and Pfizer clinical studies, meanwhile, were started earlier, before such variants had become widespread.
