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WASHINGTON– In yet another problem for Johnson & & Johnson’s coronavirus vaccine, the Food and Drug Administration on Thursday limited its use to grownups who can not or decline to get the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines, pointing out safety issues.

The firm said 60 cases of a serious but uncommon blood-clotting condition have actually been determined, including nine deaths, out of about 18 million dosages administered. The action happens five months after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended Moderna’s and Pfizer’s vaccines over Johnson & & Johnson’s for booster shots.

The F.D.A. said that weighing the dangers of Johnson & & Johnson’s vaccine against the advantages, it had actually chosen to limit its use to adults who can not access Pfizer’s or Moderna’s vaccines, or for whom those shots are not “clinically suitable.” One example would be people who experienced a severe allergy to the other two vaccines, the firm said.

It said the vaccine could likewise be offered to grownups who “would otherwise not get a Covid-19 vaccine.”

Johnson & & Johnson was eclipsed long earlier by Pfizer and Moderna in the country’s vaccination project; federal authorities have stated the mRNA vaccines produced by those companies are both much safer and more efficient. In a statement, Johnson & & Johnson stated the F.D.A.’s action reflected the already-known risk of the negative effects, not brand-new information on the rate at which it takes place. In an indication of the company’s own flagging interest in its vaccine, it has stopped supplying sales outlooks for the shot to financiers.

Reports that the vaccine can trigger a condition referred to as thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome have bedeviled it from early on. In April 2021, not long after it was approved for emergency use, federal authorities paused circulation of the vaccine for a safety evaluation. Regulators lifted the time out 10 days later but added a cautioning to instructions for its use.

Then, in December, the C.D.C. advised that adults looking for a booster shot choose Moderna or Pfizer rather of Johnson & & Johnson, citing more benefits and lower threats. Paired with a host of manufacturing problems in the United States, some professionals stated, the company’s judgment illustrated that the federal government had all but composed off Johnson & & Johnson’s vaccine.

According to the F.D.A. statement on Thursday, federal authorities now have 60 reports of the blood-clotting condition– or 4 times as lots of as were reported when last year’s time out in circulation was raised. In the interim, the number of Johnson & & Johnson doses administered has a little more than doubled, while the number of Pfizer and Moderna recipients has escalated.

The number of deaths credited to the condition activated by the Johnson & & Johnson’s vaccine does not appear to have increased much, if at all. There have actually been far less, if any, believed deaths due to side effects from the mRNA vaccines, federal health authorities have said.

In its statement, the F.D.A. mentioned more than six cases and near to one death credited to the blood-clotting condition for every single 2 million shots of Johnson & & Johnson vaccine administered in the United States.

About 17 million Americans have now gotten one dosage of Johnson & & Johnson’s vaccine, and another 1.5 million have actually gotten a booster dosage, according to the C.D.C.’s data. By contrast, more than 200 million Americans have actually gotten at least 2 dosages of either Moderna’s or Pfizer’s vaccine.

Attempting to cast the tight brand-new restrictions in a positive light, Johnson & & Johnson said: “Data continue to support a favorable benefit-risk profile for the Johnson & & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine in grownups, when compared with no vaccine.”