J&J to Begin Phase 1 COVID-19 Vaccine Trial in Brazil

Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Janssen Pharmaceutical has received approval to launch a phase 1 COVID-19 vaccine trial in Brazil.

Janssen’s Ad26.COV2.S becomes the fourth vaccine hopeful to begin a trial in Brazil, which is second only to the U.S. in COVID-19 outbreak statistics with 3.4 million COVID-19 cases and more than 108,000 related deaths.

Janssen aims to recruit 6,000 participants for the Brazilian trial.

Brazil previously approved phase 3 trials of COVID-19 vaccine candidates made by AstraZeneca in partnership with the University of Oxford, China's Sinovac Biotech and Pfizer in conjunction with BioNTech.

In other vaccine trial news, China’s CanSino Biologics along with the Beijing Institute of Biotechnology got the go-ahead from Pakistan’s regulatory body to begin that country’s first phase 3 trial for a COVID-19 vaccine candidate.

The trial is slated to start in September and aims to enroll 10,000 participants. More trials are being arranged for the candidate in Saudi Arabia, Mexico and Russia (DID, Aug. 18).

Though CanSino’s vaccine, Ad5-nCoV, hasn’t yet made it through late-stage trial phases, China has approved it for use by its military. — Suz Redfearn