Johnson & Johnson expects to have enough COVID-19 vaccines for 100 million Americans by April, while the feds intensify inoculation efforts across the country, a company representative said.
The New Jersey-based drugmaker is “doing its best in production” pending the results of a large-scale clinical trial that could allow the injection to be approved for emergency use in the coming weeks, according to Dr. Mark McClellan, a J&J board member and former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration.
“I know that J&J is making a very large supply … with the goal of perhaps having enough vaccines for 100 million Americans by spring, in April of this year,” McClellan told CNBC late on Thursday. “It will make a big difference in the availability of supplies in the coming weeks and months if the test works.”
J&J hopes to release data later this month from the Phase 3 trial of its single-dose coronavirus vaccine, which has been shown to generate an immune response to COVID-19 in an early-stage study.
The company will then seek an emergency use authorization from the FDA, which would allow it to be administered across the country like the existing injections from Pfizer and Moderna.
But the pharmaceutical company reportedly faced production problems that led it to delay its goal of making 12 million doses available by the end of February. J&J, however, said it is “confident” that it will be able to meet its supply commitments this year.
While vaccine supplies in general are growing, it will be difficult to “keep up with the large number of Americans who really want to be vaccinated now,” said McClellan.
Less than half of the nearly 38 million doses distributed so far have fallen into the arms of Americans, according to federal data, and officials in places like New York City have warned of the shortage.
President Biden’s administration “set a target of one million doses a day,” McClellan told CNBC. “In fact, we’ve been at that level for the past few days and I think people are going to expect a higher level of vaccine distribution and administration.”