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Johnson & Johnson is targeting to manufacture up to three billion COVID-19 vaccine doses in 2022, the company’s chief scientific officer Dr. Paul Stoffels has said in an interview after the European Union approved the one-dose immunization. The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has authorized Johnson & Johnson’s one-shot coronavirus vaccine, giving the European Union’s 27 nations a fourth licensed vaccine to try to curb the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic amid a stalled vaccination drive in the bloc.
With the aim of producing the targeted quantity of the vaccine, the company is bringing on three manufacturing plants to produce the key drug substance, according to news agency Reuters. Additionally, it will have seven plants globally that will handle final production steps and bottling into vials known as fill and finish, it said.
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All these will function together to deliver the one billion by the end of the year, said the report quoting Stoffels.
“Next year, we can do more than two billion vaccines, and even up to three if we maximize capacity. With Merck on board, we will be north of 2 billion,” Stoffels added, referring to a recent agreement for rival Merck & Co to produce J&J’s vaccine. Stoffels further said that he was confident that the company will be able to deliver a planned 55 million doses to the EU in the second quarter. The COVID-19 vaccine by J&J is the fourth to be endorsed for use in the EU after vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, and AstraZeneca.
