Johnson & Johnson to begin human testing of coronavirus vaccine by Sept; stock rises 8%
The first batches of a COVID-19 vaccine could be available for emergency use authorisation in early 2021, the company said.
March 31, 2020 / 09:35 AM IST
Johnson & Johnson share price surged 8 percent on March 30 after the US-based company said that it will begin human testing of its experimental coronavirus vaccine by September.
The first batches of a COVID-19 vaccine could be available for emergency use authorisation in early 2021, the company said.
The healthcare major has joined hands with Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, which is part of the Department of Health and Human Services, to co-fund vaccine research. It has committed $1 billion for it.
According to the company, clinical data of phase 1 of the candidate vaccine is expected before the end of the year. And if all goes well, J&J said it could be available for emergency use in early 2021.
J&J said it is also increasing its manufacturing capacity with a new site in the US and additions to existing sites in other countries to produce and distribute the potential vaccine quickly.
The company is planning to produce over 1 billion doses of the said vaccine.
"We have very good early indicators that not only can we depend on this to be a safe vaccine base but also one that will ultimately be effective based on all the early testing and modelling we’ve been doing,” Chairman and CEO Alex Gorsky said in a televised interview with CNBC.
“This is a bit of a moonshot for J&J going forward, but it’s one we feel is very, very important for use to be doing at this period in time,” he added.
Major pharma companies are scurrying to develop a vaccine for the novel coronavirus COVID-19 that has killed over 34,000 worldwide. However, according to industry specialists and experts, it will take at least one year to develop a viable vaccine.