Johnson & Johnson single dose jab gets nod of approval

The United Kingdom (UK) has given approval for its fourth COVID-19 vaccine, the Janssen (Johnson & Johnson) single dose jab, for use across the country.

The United States (US)-developed vaccine was approved this week by the Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency (MHRA). The three other vaccines available in the UK are the Oxford AstraZeneca, Pfizer and Moderna. As the most recent of the three, administration of the Moderna became in April.

On March 21, the World Health Organization (WHO) approved the Johnson & Johnson vaccine for emergency use. It has also been approved for emergency use in Europe, the United States and some other countries. It is the only single-dose COVID-19 vaccine currently approved by the WHO.

More than eight million doses of the Janssen vaccine have already been administered in the US and it was reported to be 85 per cent effective during medical trials.

UK has ordered 20 million doses of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine

The UK has ordered 20 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which should be available later this year. Already, more than 38 million people in the UK have received their first vaccination – or more than 56 per cent of the population.

Information from Our World in Data shows that Israel is still the leader in having the largest percentage of its population vaccinated – currently standing at 62.9 per cent. Israel is followed by the UK with a rate of 56.5 per cent, followed by Mongolia, which is then followed by Canada, Chile, Bahrain and Hungary.

The United States, which previously ranked just behind the UK now stands in eighth place with 49.55 per cent of its population vaccinated. The data shows that a country like Jamaica is behind the curve, where only about 5.1 per cent of the population has been vaccinated with at least one dose, and only 0.5 per cent has been fully vaccinated.

The findings of the Our World in Data emphasises the fact that most of the world’s population is nowhere near getting even one vaccine dose – increasing the risk of the virus continuing to produce variants, such as the current ‘Indian’ variant that is growing quickly in much of the UK.

Advantages of the Janssen vaccine

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Apart from being a single-dose vaccine, the Janssen vaccine has the advantage of not requiring the same kind of cold-chain management required by the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. It shares that trait with the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine, as both can be stored at normal refrigerator temperatures, rather than the ultra-cold temperatures required by the two other RNA vaccines.

The Janssen shot is also far cheaper than those two vaccines – both because a dose is cheaper and also because only one does is required. At about US$10 for a Janssen vaccine, it works out to be a little more expensive than the AstraZeneca, which even with the requirement for two shots would still cost less.

The Janssen vaccine uses the same type of technology as the AstraZeneca, so there could be similar issues as those reported for younger people.