US pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson could submit an official application for its vaccine against COVID-19 to the European Medicines Agency (EMA) in February, according to the bloc’s Health chief, Stella Kyriakides.
While the approval of jab developed by J&J could mark the EU’s fourth COVID-19 vaccine, it is “vaccinations” and not the vaccine itself that will save lives, Kyriakides said, Reuters reported, citing Peter Liese, an EU lawmakers who speaks on health matters for the European People’s Party (EPP).
The Commission’s deal with Johnson & Johnson was inked in October, under which, its subsidiary Janssen Pharmaceutica NV could supply the EU with up to 400 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine.
Once the vaccine gets the green-light by regulators, the American pharmaceutical could allocate 200 million doses of the potential vaccine, starting from mid-2021, with the possibility to secure an additional 200 million doses.
An EU official told Reuters that Johnson & Johnson could deliver the first doses of its COVID-19 vaccine to Europe on April 1, while a spokesperson of Kyriakides said the Commission cannot give “any precise indications regarding an application for conditional marketing authorisation, but we of course hope that an application could be submitted in the coming weeks.”