Two COVID-19 vaccines are already on the market in the US Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) could join the club with his vaccine in the near future. The healthcare giant filed for an emergency permit in the US earlier this month. In this Motley Fool Live video recorded on February 1, 2021, “The Wrap” host Jason Hall and Motley Fool contributor Keith Speights discuss the important things to know about J & J’s COVID vaccine.
Jason Hall: Keith, let’s start talking about what’s the latest on the coronavirus vaccines. We have some questions to ask here and let’s start with this one first because I can tell you this is mine. This is the one I am most interested in.
With Johnson & Johnson, the megapharmaceutical company recently announced late-stage results for last week’s study of the COVID vaccine. We saw that the efficacy was a lot lower. You’re going to be dating from the mid-90s percent Pfizer Modern until the mid 60s, for J&J. Can you tell us what it all means? Can J&J still win an emergency use permit?
Keith Speights: Yes. Well, first of all absolutely. I fully expect Johnson & Johnson to receive emergency use approval for their vaccine. The efficacy rate was certainly lower than that of Pfizer or Moderna. You’re right, Pfizer and Moderna had operations in the mid-1990s. Johnson & Johnson came out with an overall efficiency of 66 percent. That doesn’t look great by comparison.
But there are a few things to keep in mind about the J & J. Nr. 1, it is a single dose vaccine. They get that efficacy after one injection, while Pfizer and Moderna get their greater efficacy after two injections. By the way, J&J is also evaluating a two-stage regime. The results will be available later this year.
The most important thing to remember is that single dose. That’s really important because you get the protection much faster and that’s great. That helps us get immunity, and I think that will be a big factor in winning EUA very soon. The other thing to note with their vaccine is that, in terms of how much it has prevented serious cases of COVID, I think it was 85 percent effective.
Jason Hall: Turn right. That is huge.
Keith Speights: Yes, that is excellent. I think we might be a bit spoiled.
Jason Hall: I remember, Keith, when we first started talking about it, the FDA’s expectation was that anything with an efficacy of 50 percent or higher would be considered great. We are going to approve it. We have to do something.
Keith Speights: Exactly. I think when Pfizer and Moderna came out with their 94 percent, 95 percent efficacy, everyone thought, “That’s what we should expect.” See, our flu vaccines are only about 60 percent effective. For a vaccine over 90 percent is excellent, it’s staggering.
Jason Hall: Especially when you start to think of the people most at risk for this as a deadly disease, I think that’s really important. I also noticed that if I recall correctly, they provided a little more data that in the US, the efficacy rates were higher.
Keith Speights: They were. That’s the other thing to note with J & J’s results. These new variants we talked about earlier were in the mix for their clinical study to a much greater extent. We don’t even know how much, if at all, the new variance was part of the Pfizer, Moderna studies. Their results were notably negatively impacted by their studies in South Africa, where efficacy was only 57 percent.
Jason Hall: Turn right.
Keith Speights: But in the US, the efficacy was 72 percent, which is better than their overall efficacy. This is a good vaccine. I think it will be on the market soon. I think it will help make a difference. I think it will help us give immunity to that herd. Whether that’s November or next year, whatever the case, I think it’s going to be a major vaccine.
Jason Hall: Especially when you consider that this is Johnson & Johnson, in terms of their capacity and scale to market a product, that just has to be something people should pay attention to.
Keith Speights: Turn right. An interesting thing that most people may not realize about Johnson & Johnson is that they currently only have one approved vaccine.
Jason Hall: Wow.
Keith Speights: They have not been big on the vaccine market.
Jason Hall: It’s not their thing.
Keith Speights: It’s not their thing. They’re getting into it, but it hasn’t been their thing historically, but they’re so big. They are the largest healthcare company in the world and they clearly have the financial resources and the technical expertise to target any area they want. I’m glad they are getting vaccines. I think it is a good thing.
Jason Hall: Their logistics are just simple scale. I think it’s really, really valuable in this.