Onedose vaccine nears US approval

WASHINGTON: The United States expects to roll out 3 million to 4 million doses of Johnson & Johnson’s Covid19 vaccine next week, pending authorisation from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), White House Covid19 response coordinator Jeff Zients said yesterday.

A Johnson & Johnson executive the previous day said the company expected to ship nearly 4 million doses of the vaccine once it gained authorisation.

The additional vaccine will help President Joe Biden’s administration in its goal of ramping up vaccination across the country as it seeks to control the pandemic that has cost more than 500,000 lives in the US and pummelled the economy.

Zients described the company’s manufacturing as being behind schedule when the new president took over from former President Donald Trump.

‘‘It was disappointing when we arrived.

‘‘I think the progress is real and we look forward to continuing to work with the company to accelerate . . . their delivery and their capacity,’’ Zients said.

The FDA said yesterday the Johnson & Johnson onedose vaccine appeared safe and effective in trials, paving the way for its approval for emergency use as soon as this week.

The company has a contract to deliver 100 million doses to the US by the end of June. Zients said the administration was working to accelerate that timeline.

The Biden administration told governors this week it would allocate about 2 million doses of the first Johnson & Johnson distribution to states. The remainder would go to federal distribution programmes, such as the federal pharmacy and community health centre programmes, Zients said.

Zients told reporters the Government had caught up from a backlog of vaccine distribution caused by the winter storm that hit Texas last week.