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Johnson & Johnson to begin testing COVID-19 vaccine on adolescent patients

pharmafile | November 2, 2020 | News story | Sales and Marketing  

Johnson & Johnson plans to start testing its COVID-19 vaccine candidate in adolescents between the age of 12 and 18. 

If the candidate proves successful and safe, the company plans to test it in even younger patients. The company has said in a statement that it is currently discussing with regulators and partners regarding the inclusion of this age range in its trials.

The company’s vaccine platform is called AdVac and uses a cold virus to deliver coronavirus genetic material in order to create an immune response. It is the same technology used in a vaccine for Ebola which has received European approval and has been used on 100,000 people. 

Dr Jerry Sadoff, the Head of Early Development of the Crucell Vaccine Institute, the Center of Excellence for Vaccine Development at Johnson & Johnson, said: “We plan to go into children as soon as we possibly can, but very carefully in terms of safety. Most of the toxicities are going to come from the platform and not from putting a different insert into the platform. So replacing the Ebola genetic material with that of the novel coronavirus is unlikely to give you major issues.”

Pfizer has already begun testing its own coronavirus vaccine, developed in partnership with BioNTech, in children as young as 12. 

J&J is in the process of conducting Phase 3 studies into their vaccine involving over 60,000 volunteers. The company had to pause the trial earlier in October due to a serious medical event in one participant, but the patient had received a placebo and not the vaccine. 

Conor Kavanagh

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