INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Pharmaceutical giant Johnson - Johnson is partnering with the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority of the U.S
Department of Health and Human Services to fund over $1 billion in COVID-19 vaccine and antiviral treatment research and development, the
company said on Monday.
The partnership is an expansion of an existing agreement between BARDA and J-J Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies
division.
With the agreement, the company is setting a goal of providing a global supply of more than one billion doses of the vaccine,
which J-J expects to have in clinical trials by September 2020 at the latest
The first batches of the vaccine may be available for emergency use by early 2021, the company said.
BARDA partnership with J-J encompasses
research and development of potential antiviral treatments in addition to the work that being done to develop a vaccine for the disease
Those efforts include development work J-J and BARDA are conducting with the Rega Institute for Medical Research in Belgium.
J-J said it had
also committed to expanding its global manufacturing capacity, both in the U.S
That additional production ability will help the company bring an affordable vaccine to the public on a not-for-profit basis for emergency
pandemic use, the company said.
Working with teams at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, a part of the Harvard Medical School, Janssen
Pharmaceuticals began its research into potential vaccine candidates back in January
Those candidates were tested at several academic institutions, the company said, which led to the identification of a lead COVID-19 vaccine
candidate — and two potential back-ups.
Last week, Moderna Health, another pharmaceutical company working on a vaccine, said that it could
have an experimental treatment available to healthcare workers as soon as the fall.
Moderna could make experimental COVID-19 vaccine
available to healthcare workers by fall
The Moderna vaccine uses messenger RNA, rather than doses of the COVID-19 virus itself, to
inoculate against the disease
The use of mRNA means that the inoculation doesn&t expose recipients to the disease itself, so they&re not at risk of contracting the
disease.
Last Monday, Moderna made the vaccine available to volunteer participants as part of the company Phase 1 clinical trials conducted
