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Johnson & Johnson's covid vaccine could get green light by the end of the week | TribLIVE.com
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Johnson & Johnson's covid vaccine could get green light by the end of the week

Bret Gibson
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AP
Stickers given to people getting vaccinated for covid-19 are shown at the VA Puget Sound Health Care System campus in Seattle.

An advisory panel from the Food and Drug Administration will meet Friday to consider approving Johnson & Johnson’s one-dose coronavirus vaccine.

The company has applied to the FDA for emergency authorization. The panel is expected to grant that as early as this weekend, after it discusses the effectiveness and safety of J&J’s vaccine. Emergency authorization could come soon after, Reuters reported.

The vaccine is being eagerly awaited as the next in line to join the covid-19 vaccines already in use from Pfizer and Moderna but would be the first single-dose shot available on the market. The vaccine has an efficacy rate of 66%, whereas vaccines produced by Pfizer and Moderna are more than 90% effective.

Johnson & Johnson’s Dr. Richard Nettles said in prepared remarks for the House Energy and Commerce Committee “is to begin shipping immediately upon emergency use authorization, and deliver enough single-doses by the end of March to enable the vaccination of more than 20 million Americans.”

By the end of June, the company claims it could have 100 million doses ready.

Bret Gibson is a TribLive digital producer. A South Hills resident, he started working for the Trib in 1998. He can be reached at bgibson@triblive.com.

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