The U.S. is poised to have three vaccines available after an FDA advisory panel unanimously recommended that the agency authorize the Ad26.COV2-S vaccine from Johnson & Johnson.
Although the recommendations of the independent Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) are nonbinding, the agency almost always heeds them. There are 22 members in the panel.
The agency will likely authorize the vaccine quickly.
J&J’s vaccine differs from the mRNA vaccines currently available in that it uses an adenovirus vector, will be available as a single dose and can be stored at typical refrigeration temperatures.
While the vaccine’s overall efficacy of 66% trails that of vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna by nearly 30 percentage points, the vaccine offers strong protection against severe COVID-19 disease.
VRBPAC member Dr. Archana Chatterjee shed light on the panel’s unanimous support of the vaccine, even though some member…