Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) saw its shares move slightly past breakeven, on news released Thursday saying its potential coronavirus vaccine prevented severe illness in a small group of Syrian golden hamsters.
J&J researchers vaccinated hamsters with a single dose and then exposed the rodents to the virus four weeks later.
J&J said the vaccine elicited neutralizing antibodies, which researchers believe are necessary to build immunity to the virus, in hamsters who got the vaccine.
Vaccinated hamsters also appeared to lose less weight than unvaccinated hamsters and didn’t experience severe clinical disease, such as pneumonia, or mortality. The results were published Thursday in the medical journal Nature Medicine.
Said Chief Scientific Officer Jeff Stoffels was quoted thus: “This pre-clinical study further validates our confidence in our SARS-CoV-2 vaccine candidate.
“With our Phase 3 trials planned to start this month, we remain committed to expanding our manufacturing and distribution capabilities to enable global access to our SARS-CoV-2 vaccine candidate should it prove to be safe and effective in humans.”
The promising results in hamsters do not necessarily mean the vaccine will provide the same level of protection in humans. But J&J researchers noted the findings are important as COVID-19 is known to progress into severe disease in some humans.
J&J, based in New Brunswick, New Jersey, is one of several companies working to develop a vaccine for the coronavirus, which continues to rapidly spread across the globe. The company expects to begin a 60,000-person late-stage trial testing its vaccine sometime this month. It would be the largest trial testing a coronavirus vaccine yet.
JNJ shares took on 32 cents to $149.87.