J&J does not have a large stock of doses, say Biden employees

Johnson & Johnson did not manufacture many doses of its Covid-19 single dose vaccine before its expected regulatory release later this month.

The government has learned in recent weeks that J&J will only have “a few million” doses ready when the vaccine is likely to be authorized by the Food and Drug Administration, Jeff Zients, President Joe Biden’s Covid czar, told reporters on Wednesday during a Briefing event on pandemic news.

Federal and state health officials expected the vaccine supply to increase rapidly after J&J vaccine authorization for emergency use. The FDA scheduled a meeting of its Vaccine and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee on February 26 to discuss the vaccine, and the United States may authorize it the next day.

J&J currently has an agreement with the U.S. government to provide 100 million doses of its vaccine by the end of June, said Zients. Assuming the vaccine is authorized, the Biden administration will work with J&J to increase supplies as quickly as possible, he said, adding that US officials hope that many of these doses will be available in the first few months of its launch.

“We are doing everything we can to work with the company to speed up the delivery schedule,” he said.

The news comes as the Biden government works to increase the supply of doses, after states complained that the demand for injections was quickly outstripping the supply. Approximately 39.7 million of about 331 million Americans received at least their first dose of Pfizer or Moderna two-dose vaccines, according to data compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And 15 million of those people have had their second chance.

Biden announced on Thursday that the United States has secured 100 million more doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and 100 million more of the Modern vaccine, increasing the total US supply to 600 million doses. Since vaccines require two doses, a total of 600 million doses would be sufficient to inoculate 300 million Americans.

And a few days later, on Tuesday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki announced that the Biden administration was increasing the number of doses of the Covid-19 vaccine sent to the states weekly, sending 13.5 million doses. doses this week and doubling the number going to retail pharmacies.

This is a developing story. Please check again for updates.