A fourth Covid-19 vaccine candidate has gone into the final stage of clinical trials in the U.S., with Johnson & Johnson announcing the start of its Phase 3 trial Wednesday.
The drugmaker follows Pfizer and Moderna, whose Phase 3 trials began in late July. AstraZeneca also started its Phase 3 vaccine trial this month, but it remains on pause in the U.S. after a participant in the U.K. was reported to have developed a spinal cord injury.
The Johnson & Johnson trial is not expected to yield preliminary results for at least two months.
President Donald Trump has repeatedly pressed for faster work on vaccine research — even suggesting that there could be some kind of approval before the Nov. 3 election. That timeline would be impossible, at least for Johnson & Johnson, whose interim results are not expected until late November at the earliest.
Johnson & Johnson's vaccine candidate, which is being developed in partnership with Janssen Pharmaceuticals, differs in several ways from the others that have reached the final stage of trials.
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