Johnson & Johnson has requested emergency use authorization for its coronavirus vaccine, which if approved, would be the third vaccine available for distribution in the United States and the first in a single dose.
The company’s request to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration comes after data released last week showing its effectiveness against the virus at 66 percent. The company expected to have product available to ship immediately following authorization, according to a news release.
"These topline results with a single-shot COVID-19 vaccine candidate represent a promising moment," Johnson & Johnson Chief Scientific Officer Dr. Paul Stoffels said of the clinical trials last week.
So far, only Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech’s two-shot vaccines have received approval from the FDA.
They were given the green light in back-to-back weeks in December.
The unique single-dose option offered by Johnson & Johnson could ease distribution challenges, part of a rocky national rollout of the vaccines. The Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines were shown to be 94 percent and 95 percent effective in two doses, respectively.
The nation’s leading infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, said the most important finding of the company's data was that the vaccine appeared to be 85 percent effective in preventing severe disease, according to CNBC.
The FDA's authorization could come as early as this month.
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