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Investors are counting on vaccines to end the virus crisis.
Courtesy Johnson & Johnson
Johnson & Johnsonin
The Covid-19 vaccine offers enormous promise as a way out of the worst of the pandemic. Distributed as a single dose, without the extreme storage requirements of vaccines for
Pfizer
and
Modern,
can accelerate global inoculation if effective.
But on Wednesday, the New York Times reported that the company faces delays in manufacturing the vaccine that delayed it by up to two months in its initial production schedule. The report comes amid growing expectations for data from the Johnson & Johnson vaccine Phase 3 trial (ticker: JNJ), expected in the coming weeks.
Speaking at JP Morgan’s health investor conference on Monday, Johnson & Johnson CEO Alex Gorsky said the company intended to have “hundreds of millions of doses” of the vaccine available in the first half of this year and “close to a billion “by the end of the year.
“We are still on track to reach these volumes,” said Gorsky. “And again, we are working night and day to see what else we can do to accelerate this further in an effective and safe, compliant and high quality way.”
But, according to Wednesday’s New York Times report, the company is falling behind on production promises it made for the federal government’s Operation Warp Speed.
Under the agreement, announced in August, the company agreed to deliver 100 million doses of its vaccine to the United States government for $ 1 billion. The company did not disclose specific targets for the production schedule at the time, but the New York Times reported on Wednesday that it should have 12 million doses ready by the end of February.
The Times says the production schedule is delayed by two months. A Johnson & Johnson official interviewed by the Times did not comment on the production, but an Operation Warp Speed official confirmed the delay in the newspaper. The Times reports that the company must now stick to its original production schedule by the end of April. Until then, it had planned to deliver more than 60 million doses.
Johnson & Johnson did not immediately answer a question from Barron’s on the Times report on Wednesday morning.
Johnson & Johnson shares rose 0.4% in the pre-market. The stock gained 7.6% in the last 12 months.
Write to Josh Nathan-Kazis at [email protected]