Ad26.COV2-S vector-based vaccine protected against infection with SARS-Cov-2, in a pre-clinical study which is published in Nature.- Johnson & Johnson

Johnson & Johnson announced that its lead vaccine candidate protected against infection with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, in pre-clinical studies. The data, published in Nature, show the Company’s investigational adenovirus serotype 26 (Ad26) vector-based vaccine elicited a robust immune response as demonstrated by “neutralizing antibodies,” successfully preventing subsequent infection and providing complete or near-complete protection in the lungs from the virus in non-human primates (NHPs) in the pre-clinical study. Based on the strength of the data, a Phase 1/IIa first-in-human clinical trial of the vaccine candidate, Ad26.COV2.S, in healthy volunteers, has now commenced in the United States and Belgium. The robust Janssen COVID-19 clinical trial program, including the Phase 1/IIa clinical trial and the Phase III clinical trial program, will evaluate both one- and two-dose regimens of Ad26.COV2.S in parallel studies. The Phase 1/IIa trial will evaluate the safety, reactogenicity (expected reactions to vaccination, such as swelling or soreness), and immunogenicity of Ad26.COV2.S in over 1,000 healthy adults aged 18 to 55 years, as well as adults aged 65 years and older. Planning also is underway for a Phase 2a study in the Netherlands, Spain and Germany and a Phase 1 study in Japan. See- "Single-shot Ad26 vaccine protects against SARS-CoV-2 in rhesus macaques "-. Noe B. Mercado, Roland Zahn,]Dan H. Barouch Nature (2020)..