By Vann Marlo Villegas
Reporter
JOHNSON & Johnson’s is developing a vaccine against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) that is expected to be available for emergency use in 2021.
Paul Stoffels, Johnson & Johnson’s chief scientific officer, said the company plans to start Phase 1 clinical study of the vaccine in September this year and the clinical data and efficacy of the vaccine will also be available by the end of the year.
“It is anticipated that the first batches of a COVID-19 vaccine could be available for emergency use authorization in early 2021,” Mr. Stoffels told BusinessWorld in an e-mail response.
“We will continue to work with local and international health authorities, governments, regulators and NGOs (non-government organizations) to ensure that if development is successful and products approved, we achieve broad and timely access to our healthcare solutions,” he added.
The company is targeting to provide a global supply of more than one billion vaccine doses and expand global manufacturing capacity by establishing new manufacturing capacity in the United States, Europe, and/or Asia.
Mr. Stoffels, vice-chairman of the executive committee, said vaccine development usually takes five to seven years before it is ready for market use but the company is expediting the timeline of the vaccine against COVID-19.
“This could allow vaccine availability for emergency use in early 2021,” he said, adding that the company “is well positioned through our combination of scientific expertise, operational scale and financial strength to bring our resources in collaboration with others to accelerate the fight against this pandemic.”
Mr. Stoffels said that the vaccine program for COVID-19 uses Johnson & Johnson’s-owned Janssen Pharmaceutical, Inc.’s technologies, AdVac® and PER.C6®, used for rapid development of vaccine candidates.
These technologies were also used to manufacture the company’s ebola vaccine and develop Zika, RSV (respiratory syncytial virus), and HIV vaccine candidates, which are currently in Phase 2 or Phase 3 of clinical development stages.
The company has identified a lead vaccine and has two back-ups but Mr. Stoffels said the focus is on the production of the lead candidate and “will assess any additional needs” as testing continues.
The company has expanded its partnership with the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), part of the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response at the US Department of Health & Human Services to speed up the vaccine research program.
Mr. Stoffels said that the company and BARDA committed more than $1 billion investment to co-fund the vaccine research, development and clinical testing. They have also provided additional funding separately for the expansion of the work in identifying potential antiviral treatments against COVID-19.
The World Health Organization said globally, the COVID-19 pandemic has infected more than 1.6 million individuals and killed 99,690.
The Department of Health said there are 4,428 confirmed cases in the country with 247 deaths and 157 recoveries.
