Illustration of the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine
Given Ruvic | Reuters
Johnson & Johnson didn’t make many doses of its one-off Covid-19 vaccine before regulatory approval is expected 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 approved by the Food and Drug Administration, President Joe Biden’s Covid czar Jeff Zients said Wednesday during a White told reporters house news about the pandemic.
Federal and state health officials expected vaccine supplies to increase rapidly once the J&J emergency vaccine was approved. The FDA scheduled a meeting of its Advisory Committee on Vaccines and Related Biological Products on February 26th to discuss the vaccine. The US could approve the vaccine the next day.
J&J currently has a contract with the U.S. government to deliver 100 million doses of its vaccine by the end of June, Zients said. Assuming the vaccine is approved, the Biden government will work with J&J to increase supply as soon as possible. US officials hope many of these cans will be available in the first few months of their introduction.
“We’re doing everything we can to work with the company and speed up the delivery schedule,” he said.
The news comes as the Biden government works to increase the supply of cans after states complained that demand for the shots was rapidly exceeding supply. Around 39.7 million out of roughly 331 million Americans have received at least their first dose of Pfizer’s or Moderna’s two-dose vaccines, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And 15 million of those people have already got their second shot.
Biden announced Thursday that the US has received 100 million more doses of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine and 100 million more of the Moderna vaccine, bringing the total US supply to 600 million doses. Since the vaccines require two doses, a total of 600 million doses would be enough to vaccinate 300 million Americans.
A few days later, on Tuesday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki announced that the Biden administration is increasing the number of Covid-19 vaccine doses sent to states each week, sending 13.5 million doses this week and reporting the number of doses Retail pharmacies walking doses doubled.
This is a developing story. Please try again.
Comments are closed.