NJ's Johnson & Johnson: Tests Of Its Coronavirus Vaccine To Begin

NEW BRUNSWICK – Johnson & Johnson announced on Monday that it will begin testing of its coronavirus vaccine by September. Emergency use of the vaccine could be authorized by early 2021.

The New Brunswick-based company announced the selection of a lead COVID-19 vaccine candidate from constructs it has been working on since January 2020, with the goal of providing a global supply of more than 1 billion doses of a vaccine, according to a company press release.

The company expects to initiate human clinical studies of its experimental vaccine, at the latest, by September 2020 and anticipates the first batches of a COVID-19 vaccine could be available for emergency use authorization in early 2021, calling it "a substantially accelerated timeframe in comparison to the typical vaccine development process."

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and Johnson & Johnson together also have committed more than $1 billion to co-fund vaccine research, development and clinical testing, the release said.

Johnson & Johnson will use its vaccine platform and is allocating resources, including personnel and infrastructure globally, to focus on these efforts, the release said. The company also will provide additional funding that will enable expansion of their ongoing work to identify potential antiviral treatments against the novel coronavirus.

“The world is facing an urgent public health crisis and we are committed to doing our part to make a COVID-19 vaccine available and affordable globally as quickly as possible," said Alex Gorsky, chairman and chief executive officer of Johnson & Johnson.

"As the world’s largest healthcare company, we feel a deep responsibility to improve the health of people around the world every day. Johnson & Johnson 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.”

Paul Stoffels, chief scientific officer at Johnson & Johnson, said the company greatly values the U.S. government’s confidence and support for its research and development efforts.

We are very pleased to have identified a lead vaccine candidate from the constructs we have been working on since January. We are moving on an accelerated timeline toward phase-one human clinical trials at the latest by September 2020 and, supported by the global production capability that we are scaling up in parallel to this testing, we expect a vaccine could be ready for emergency use in early 2021,” he said.