FHI concerned: won’t get an answer when Johnson & Johnson vaccine arrives – VG



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EASY VACCINE: With Johnson & Johnson you only need one dose. This makes distribution easier, but first FHI will know when it will arrive. Photo: KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI / AFP

If Johnson & Johnson does not deliver the vaccine doses in April, it jokes about the progress of the vaccination program.

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– We had contact with Johnson, most recently this morning. They still can’t say anything about the deliveries, infection control director Geir Bukholm of the National Institute of Public Health tells VG.

– We are concerned that we do not have exact dates. Makes planning demanding.

The current Norwegian vaccine, which only needs one dose, can be approved in the EU on Thursday. FHI hopes to be able to receive the first doses shortly after that, and no later than April.

FHI has estimated that they will receive around 900,000 doses during the second quarter. If all Johnson & Johnson doses arrive in June, much of the vaccine schedule will drop:

– It will have important consequences for the progress of the vaccination program. It’s a significant delivery, says the director of infection control.

Namely, FHI’s upbeat vaccine plan, in which everyone over the age of 18 should have had their first bite by the end of June, is up for grabs.

CONCERNED: Director of Infection Control Geir Bukholm at the National Institute of Public Health. Photo: Helge Mikalsen

Johnson & Johnson: Startup Q2

The vaccine company received FHI’s comments. Through the press office in Norway, the company responds to this:

“J&J is working with regulatory authorities and remains committed to delivering 200 million doses of Janssen’s COVID-19 vaccine in 2021, beginning in the second quarter.”

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– they say they don’t know

In the optimistic scenario of FHI, they have distributed the doses of Johnson & Johnson as follows: 300,000 in April, May and June.

Johnson & Johnson has said that they will deliver doses to the EU in the second quarter, that is, between April and June. But FHI is not allowed to know when the first doses will arrive, something they were told with Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca that are used in Norway today, Bukholm says.

Read more about the vaccine by clicking on it in the graphic below:

– What do they say when you ask them about the weather?

– They say they don’t know.

– Are you afraid it could be due to a production failure?

– We are always waiting for deliverability when we bring new vaccines to market. But we hope that the vaccine manufacturers will deliver on what they promised.

In February, the company told VG that it had started vaccine production, expanded and increased capacity to maintain agreements with Europe and the EU.

VACCINE: Johnson & Johnson will deliver doses to the EU in the second quarter. Here from the Kentucky, USA factory. Photo: Reuters

To the scriptwriter

The Reuters news agency wrote on Tuesday that Johnson & Johnson had informed the European Commission that it might be difficult for the company to deliver 55 million doses to Europe before the end of June, but that it was not impossible.

They cited an anonymous source in the EU system. This has been reported in various European media.

Saliba Andreas Korkunc, secretary of state at the Ministry of Health and Care Services, says her expectation is that Johnson & Johnson will meet the obligations it has in the delivery agreement with the EU.

– Norway will be able to access a significant number of vaccine doses from this agreement, and since it is a single-dose vaccine, these deliveries could be of great importance for the advancement of the vaccination program, he says.

It says that the first part of Johnson & Johnson’s production takes place in the EU, and the second part today takes place in the USA.

– Norway has so far not received confirmed figures for deliveries from Johnson & Johnson, and the timelines for deliveries will depend on the outcome of the production processes that are currently underway.

– We are aware of media reports on the uncertainty related to Johnson & Johnson deliveries. Faced with this uncertainty, FHI operates with two different scenarios for the advancement of the vaccination program: a sober scenario that does not include Johnson & Johnson doses and an optimistic scenario where the company is fully capable of delivering as of April.

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