The European Commission has granted conditional marketing authorisation (CMA) for the COVID‑19 vaccine developed by Janssen Pharmaceutica NV., one of the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson.
This COVID-19 vaccine is the fourth COVID-19 vaccine authorised in the EU following a positive scientific recommendation based on a thorough assessment of the safety, effectiveness, and quality of the vaccine by the European Medicines Agency (EMA).
The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said: “The Janssen vaccine is the fourth authorised vaccine of the EU’s portfolio and will help us enhance the vaccination campaign in the second quarter of 2021. It only requires a single dose, which takes us another step closer to achieving our collective goal of vaccinating 70% of the adult population by the end of summer.”
Four vaccines for Europe
The Janssen COVID-19 vaccine is given in one dose and is based on an adenovirus, a harmless virus which delivers the ‘instructions’ from the virus that causes COVID-19 – allowing the body’s own cells to make the protein unique to the COVID-19 virus. The immune system then recognises that this unique protein should not be in the body and responds by producing natural defences against infection by COVID-19.
Stella Kyriakides, Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, said: “Our portfolio now contains four safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines that we are working tirelessly to deliver to citizens in Europe and beyond as soon as possible. A single dose vaccine can make a difference in the speed of rollout. The entry on the market of the Janssen vaccine ensures that we have access to a total of up to 1.8 billion doses of approved vaccines from different technology platforms – this is key to ensuring access to vaccinations for Europe and our international partners.
“We will continue to work tirelessly to support vaccine producers and ensure they deliver doses, as agreed in our contracts.”
Janssen will deliver 200 million of their single dose COVID-19 vaccine to the EU starting in the second quarter of 2021, and the contract allows Member States to purchase an additional 200 million doses.
