JNJ Shares Tumble After Reporting Vaccine Effectiveness Johnson & Johnson, the biggest pharmaceutical company in the world, has just released the first round of results from its Phase 3 COVID-19 vaccine trials, and they are disappointing. They showed that the vaccine is only 66% effective at preventing moderate and severe COVID-19 (and that's excluding mild cases of the virus), which is less than Moderna, Pfizer, AstraZeneca and others in the west. However, western media like the FT highlighted the fact that the vaccine is, at the very least, still 57% effective against the South African variant. The vaccine showed some protection against the 501. V2 variant, which first emerged in South Africa, although efficacy was 57 per cent in trials conducted there. The jab showed an efficacy rate of 72 per cent in the US, and 66 per cent in Latin America. Alex Gorsky, J&J’s chief executive, called the results a “critical milestone”. The company intends to file for a US emergency use authorisation in early February and, if granted, will immediately be able to ship vaccines. “Our goal all along has been to create a simple, effective solution for the largest number of people possible, and to have maximum impact to help end the pandemic,” he said. That's critical, since the trial data released last night by Novavax showed that the US OWS-backed vaccine wasn't nearly as effective against the mutated virus than the version in the UK. Given the fact that it's a Dow component, JNJ shares are taking down the whole index, and contributing to a broader selloff in value stocks. It's just the latest reminder that the fantastic results promised by Dr. Anthony Fauci and former FDA chief Dr. Scott Gottlieb (aka CNBC's go-to COVID expert) far outstrip the reality. While also raising questions about the other trial results. Tyler Durden Fri, 01/29/2021 - 08:31