BRIEF—COVID-19 Vaccine Janssen gets WHO backing

Adding to its European Commission conditional marketing authorization just a day earlier, the World Health Organization (WHO) today listed the COVID-19 vaccine Ad26.COV2.S, developed by Janssen, the prescription pharma unit of US healthcare giant Johnson & Johnson, for emergency use in all countries and for COVAX roll-out.

“Every new, safe and effective tool against COVID-19 is another step closer to controlling the pandemic,” said WHO Director General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

“But the hope offered by these tools will not materialize unless they are made available to all people in all countries. I urge governments and companies to live up to their commitments and to use all solutions at their disposal to ramp up production so that these tools become truly global public goods, available and affordable to all, and a shared solution to the global crisis,” he stressed.

The vaccine, dubbed COVID-19 Vaccine Janssen, is the first to be listed by the WHO as a single dose regimen, which should facilitate vaccination logistics in all countries.

The ample data from large clinical trials shared by the company also shows that the vaccine is effective in older populations.

As part of the emergency use (EUL) process, the company producing the vaccine must commit to continue to generate data to enable full licensure and WHO prequalification of the vaccine.