The Scientific Director of the American Pharmaceutical Group Johnson & Johnson (J & J), Paul Stoffels, has announced that the company is planning to provide 500 million doses of its vaccine to poor countries.
Once the results of clinical trials are announced by the end of January 2021, J & J will sell the vaccine at the cost price to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.
The vaccine is currently under the final stage of clinical trials, the results of which are expected in late January. The trial includes 60,000 participants from 200 locations in America and other countries.
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At a virtual round table in Geneva, Stoffels said that phase trials of J & J, which had temporarily been interrupted when a participant had fallen ill, are now “in full swing”.
He stated, “We might have results sooner than expected — but we target results for the month of January both for safety and efficacy”.
AztraZeneca, a leading rival in the global race for a COVID-19 vaccine, has claimed that its vaccine ‘AZD1222’ has up to 90 percent efficacy. The company has pledged to sell it for around $2.80 per dose, while Pfizer of the United States has pledged to sell its dose for around $40. Meanwhile, J & J hopes to win emergency authorization to market its vaccine by early 2021.
The temperature at which J & J’s vaccine can be kept is at 2.0 degrees Centigrade, unlike certain other vaccines that can be stored only at extremely low temperatures.
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Speaking at the same conference that was organized by the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA), the Head of Swiss lab Roche, Severin Schwan, said, “It’s a good model during a crisis, but I don’t think it can be a standard for sustainable innovation in the long run”.