[ad_1]
NEW YORK: President Joe Biden said Tuesday (March 2) that the United States would have enough vaccine for its entire adult population by the end of May, when he announced a deal for pharmaceutical giant Merck to produce the injection developed by rival Johnson & Johnson. .
“This is the kind of collaboration between companies that we saw in the World War,” Biden said in announcing the pharmaceutical deal.
“We are now on track to have a sufficient supply of vaccines for all adults in the United States by the end of May,” said the American leader, who previously aimed at the end of July to accumulate enough doses to inoculate all Americans.
“That is progress. An important progress. But it is not enough to have the vaccine supply,” Biden said, emphasizing that there is still a “war effort” ahead to administer the vaccines once acquired.
Merck will use two of its facilities to “produce pharmaceuticals, formulate and fill vials of the J&J vaccine,” according to a statement from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
The Biden administration will leverage the Defense Production Act to provide an initial $ 105 million to Merck to convert and equip its facilities to safely manufacture the vaccine, according to the statement.
The J&J vaccine is the third to receive US regulatory approval for emergency use, but the first to require a single injection rather than two injections.
Biden also said that Johnson & Johnson’s own vaccine manufacturing facilities “will now begin operating 24 hours a day, 7 days a week,” at the behest of the administration.
LEE: US senators rush to refine COVID-19 aid of US $ 1.9 trillion from Biden before the vote
HHS said this would allow J&J to deliver about 100 million doses to the United States by the end of May, instead of June, as previously promised.
J&J said in a statement that it was “pleased” to be working with Merck, which “will improve our production capacity so that we can supply beyond our current commitments.”
INCREASE CAPACITY
Biden’s comments came moments after Texas Governor Greg Abbott lifted a state mask mandate and authorized companies to open the state “100 percent.”
But “now is not the time to give in,” the president warned, calling on Americans to follow social distancing protocols and wear a mask even as new coronavirus cases drop and get more vaccinated.
“Good news, but stay tuned,” Biden said. “It is not over yet”.
READ: Texas Governor Lifts State COVID-19 Mask Mandate and Trade Restrictions
The J&J injection appears slightly less protective than the Pfizer and Moderna regimens, which are about 95 percent effective against all forms of COVID-19. But all three have been shown to fully protect against hospitalizations and death.
White House coronavirus response coordinator Jeff Zients said Monday that the federal government is aiming to distribute 3.9 million doses of the new vaccine this week – “the entire J&J inventory.”
Merck, a major vaccine producer in its own right, had started work on coronavirus vaccines but abandoned those efforts in January, saying immune responses were “inferior” to successful COVID-19 vaccines.
The agreement between Merck and J&J follows an agreement between Pfizer-BioNTech and French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi, which plans to produce 125 million doses at a factory in Frankfurt, Germany, after Sanofi’s own candidate vaccine fell short.
CHECK THIS: Our comprehensive coverage of the coronavirus outbreak and its developments
Download our app or subscribe to our Telegram channel for the latest updates on the coronavirus outbreak: https://cna.asia/telegram
