Johnson & Johnson will supply covid-19 vaccine to the world

At present, the outbreak of novel coronavirus pneumonia in foreign countries is still spreading rapidly. According to Baidu's "Real-time Big Data Report on the New Coronavirus Pneumonia Epidemic Situation", as of 15:00 on April 25, 2020, there were more than 2.83 million diagnoses worldwide, more than 2.75 million diagnoses abroad, and more than 192,000 deaths. A total of 925,000 cases were diagnosed in the United States and 52,000 deaths.

The situation of the new crown epidemic is unprecedentedly severe. Governments in various countries are urgently authorizing the use of potential drugs / therapies for the treatment of severe new coronavirus pneumonia (COVID-19), including antiviral drugs, antimalarial drugs, antiinflammatory drugs, and rehabilitation periods. Plasma, blood purification technology, etc. Currently, many pharmaceutical companies have joined the ranks of COVID-19 drug / vaccine R & D. According to a report released by the American Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Association (PhRMA), there are currently more than 70 COVID-19 vaccines under study worldwide, of which 6 have entered human clinical trials.

Earlier this month, Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) announced that it has screened out the main candidate vaccines for COVID-19. The company plans to quickly expand its production capacity to ensure the global supply of more than 1 billion safe and effective vaccines. Recently, Johnson & Johnson announced the latest situation in this regard. According to a statement issued, Johnson & Johnson announced that its subsidiary, Yangsen Pharmaceutical, and Emergent BioSolutions have reached a strategic cooperation to support the production of its COVID-19 main vaccine candidate. This is the first in a series of future global cooperation agreements aimed at accelerating the production of Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine candidate and further promoting the company's goal of supplying more than 1 billion doses of vaccine globally.

Paul Stoffels, M.D., vice chairman and chief scientific officer of the Strong Executive Committee, said: "We have set a high standard. Johnson & Johnson is committed to rapidly producing and supplying more than 1 billion doses of safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines worldwide. The cooperation with Emergent proves that we are fulfilling this commitment quickly. "

According to the terms of this production agreement, Johnson & Johnson is investing in expanding the production capacity of APIs related to the COVID-19 vaccine candidate. Emergent will provide drug manufacturing services and its molecule-to-market contract R & D and production services (CDMO) from 2020, and will retain operational capabilities to use Janssen ’s proven AdVac® and 2021 PER.C6® technology supports the commercial manufacture of Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine candidates.

The company has begun preparations for clinical vaccine production at its Leiden plant in the Netherlands, with the aim of starting phase I human clinical studies of candidate vaccines in September 2020. Johnson & Johnson plans to immediately put into risky production and is committed to bringing affordable and available vaccines to the public on an unprofitable basis for emergency containment.

At the same time, Johnson & Johnson also plans to rapidly expand vaccine production capacity globally, including increasing production capacity outside the United States. The new global production capacity will help to rapidly produce vaccines, aiming to provide more than one billion doses of safe and effective vaccines to people all over the world.

Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 main vaccine candidate

In January 2020, when the new coronavirus gene sequence was just made public, Johnson & Johnson set out to develop potential vaccine candidates. The research and development team of Janssen Pharmaceuticals cooperated with the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center affiliated with Harvard Medical School to construct and test a variety of vaccine candidates using Adsensian AdVac® technology.

In collaboration with researchers from multiple academic institutions, the vaccine constructs are tested to determine which vaccine is most likely to produce an immune response in preclinical trials.

Based on this work, Johnson & Johnson has identified a COVID-19 main candidate vaccine (and two alternative vaccines), which will enter the initial production stage. Under the accelerated progress of research and development, Johnson & Johnson plans to start Phase I clinical research in September 2020 and obtain clinical data on safety and effectiveness by the end of this year. This will help the vaccine to be used for emergency use in early 2021. In contrast, traditional vaccine R & D involves multiple different stages of development, and a candidate vaccine can take 5 to 7 years before it enters the approval process.

For more than 20 years, Johnson & Johnson has invested billions of dollars in research and development of antiviral drugs and vaccines. The COVID-19 vaccine R & D project is using Janssen's recognized AdVac® and PER.C6® technologies to rapidly develop new vaccine candidate products and expand the production scale of the best vaccine candidate products. The technology has been used in research and development and production of the company's Ebola vaccine, as well as in the development of candidate vaccines such as Zika virus, respiratory syncytial virus, and HIV, which are in phase 2 or phase 3 clinical development.

COVID-19 originates from a group of new coronaviruses that attack the respiratory system. There are currently no approved vaccines, therapies or medicines for this.