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.
If the Johnson & Johnson vaccine gets the emergency use authorization from the FDA, “they’re not going to have a lot of doses on the first day. It will likely be relatively few, which will then scale up a lot more … But it’s not going to be front loaded,” Dr. Fauci says. pic.twitter.com/clFMk5oRuT
— CNN (@CNN) February 23, 2021
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.
NEW VACCINE TIMELINE: Johnson & Johnson says it could deliver 20 million doses by the end of March provided the vaccine is approved by the FDA. ABC’s Ike Ejiochi has the latest. pic.twitter.com/D7iLvtF7Ry
— ABC World News Now (@abcWNN) February 23, 2021
