Pharmaceutical company Janssen is offering no guarantees, but the Dutch company is quietly confident as they currently work to develop an effective vaccine against the coronavirus.
The company announced on Monday 30th March 2020 that one of ten vaccine options they’re working on, which have seen positive results in the first round of testing on animals, can also be produced on a large scale. “The tests showed that this vaccine produces antibodies that can attach to and neutralise the coronavirus,” confirmed the company’s announcement.
However, these results are still in the initial stages of testing. The American parent company of Janssen, Johnson and Johnson, in collaboration with Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), part of the US Health Department. On the same day as the announcement Johnson and Johnson decided to invest over US$1 billion (Rp16.5 trillion) in the vaccine’s development.
This pharmaceutical company uses a completely harmless cold virus and inserts a piece of the genetic code, coding from the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 in this case. This method means that the a virus can no longer multiply.
From that piece of the genetic code of the coronavirus, so-called S proteins are then made in the body, which prompts the immune system to produce antibodies to fight against viruses. Although this immune response has only been observed in animals, Janssen is positive that the same effect can be achieved in humans.
The company acknowledges that most vaccines fail to develop. “We have to face reality, but the first results are really positive.”
The vaccine has already been put into production and will start to be tested on healthy people this September. Based on those results, it will then be decided whether it can be tested for its protective effect against the coronavirus – a working vaccine will be hypothetically usable by early 2021.
The stock of this vaccine will be immediately available to combat any future possibilities of a COVID-19 pandemic.
Image: NPR