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Investors have vaccines to end the virus crisis.
Courtesy of Johnson & Johnson
Johnson & Johnson‘s
The Covid-19 vaccine offers a huge promise as a way out of the worst of the pandemic. It is delivered as a single dose, without the extreme storage requirements of vaccines
Pfizer
i
Modern,
it could accelerate global inoculation if proven effective.
But on Wednesday, the New York Times reported that the company faces delays in vaccine manufacturing that have positioned it for up to two months from its initial production schedule. The report comes amid growing anticipation for data from the phase 3 trial of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine (marker: JNJ), scheduled for the coming weeks.
Speaking at the JP Morgan Health Investors Conference on Monday, Johnson & Johnson CEO Alex Gorsky said the company intended to have “hundreds of millions of doses” of the vaccine available during the first half of this year and “nearly a billion” by the end of the year.
“We’re still on track to get those volumes,” Gorsky said. “And again, we work night and day to see what else we can do to accelerate it even more in an effective and safe, compatible, and high-quality way.”
But according to Wednesday’s report in the New York Times, the company lags behind in production promises it made to the federal government’s Operation Warp Speed.
Under the terms of this agreement, announced in August, the company agreed to deliver 100 million doses of its vaccine to the U.S. government for $ 1 billion. The company did not disclose specific production targets at the time, but the New York Times reported Wednesday that it intended to have 12 million doses ready by the end of February.
The Times says the production schedule is now delayed two months. A Johnson & Johnson official interviewed by the Times did not comment on the production, but an Operation Warp Speed official confirmed a delay in the newspaper. The Times reports that the company is now expected to complete its original production schedule in late April. By then, he had planned to administer more than 60 million doses.
Johnson & Johnson did not immediately respond to a question from De Barron on the Times report early Wednesday morning.
Shares of Johnson & Johnson rose 0.4% in premarket trading. Shares have risen 7.6% in the last twelve months.
Write to Josh Nathan-Kazis to [email protected]