The candidate vaccine COVID-19 being developed by Johnson & Johnson JNJ,
The subsidiary Janssen Pharmaceutica could receive emergency clearance from UK regulators within weeks, boosting the country’s massive immunization program amid an increase in coronavirus cases.
John Bell, a Regius professor of medicine at the University of Oxford and an advisor to the UK’s Vaccine Taskforce, told the Daily Telegraph: “My prediction is that it will work well, although we have to wait for the test results.”
He added: “I think they will have supplies available to the UK in a timeframe that would only allow them to reach the mid-February target of increasing the numbers. I think it can have a material impact on what we can do in the UK to vaccinate more people. ”
Opinion: There is a small chance that the vaccine will stop the COVID pandemic this year
A Janssen spokesman said it would be premature for the company to comment on its vaccine production until it received the results of its Phase 3 clinical study, which is scheduled for later this month.
“Janssen will continue to work closely with the MHRA [Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency] to complete the continuous review process for an application for national marketing authorization in the UK and is committed to bringing a non-profit publicly available COVID-19 vaccine for emergency pandemic use, ”added the spokesman.
If the data indicates that the vaccine is safe and effective, J&J expects to send an application for Emergency Use Authorization to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in February.
The UK government has ordered 30 million doses of the Janssen vaccine, with the option to buy another 22 million. The candidate vaccine is a single dose injection, unlike those developed by Modern biotechnology MRNA,
and the American pharmaceutical company Pfizer PFE,
and its German partner BioNTech BNTX,
It can also be safely stored and transported in standard refrigerator temperatures, while the Pfizer – BioNTech vaccine requires storage at less than 70 ° C.
If Janssen’s vaccine candidate is authorized by UK regulators, it would become the third vaccine to be launched on a large scale in the country, after the Pfizer – BioNTech vaccine and the one developed by the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca AZN,
with the University of Oxford, and would help speed up the effort to vaccinate the mass public.
More than 1.3 million people in the UK have already received an injection of the Pfizer – BioNTech vaccine or the AstraZeneca – Oxford vaccine, according to the government. She wants 13 million of the UK’s most vulnerable people to be vaccinated by mid-February, a goal that England’s medical director, Prof. Chris Whitty, called it “realistic, but it’s not easy”.
Read: The UK becomes the first country to launch the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine, with imminent stricter blocks
Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned on Wednesday that there is now a race “to vaccinate the vulnerable faster than the virus can reach them”.
“Each needle in each arm makes a difference,” Johnson told lawmakers.
Another 1,041 people died 28 days after the positive test for coronavirus on Wednesday, according to government data.
In a new attempt to boost the mass immunization campaign, some general practice surgeries will be allowed to administer the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine from Thursday, the National Health Service said.
Seven vaccination centers will be among many more sites that will go online next week, along with more hospitals, GP-led services and a range of pilot vaccine services in pharmacies, added the NHS.
Read: Fauci said the United States will not extend the interval between doses of the vaccine
Last week, the MHRA, the Joint Vaccination and Immunization Committee and four UK medical directors agreed to postpone the interval between the first and second doses of vaccines, in an attempt to protect as many people as possible in the shortest possible time. .