Boosted by a major financial agreement with the United States government, the famous pharmaceutical company Johnson &Johnson (J&J) has launched the production of a vaccine. However, the vaccine in question has not yet been tested on humans. Supported by the political authorities, this vaccine project is not yet subject to any validation by the health authorities!
Most vaccine labs seem to be doing things in order, despite the real urgency of the Covid-19 pandemic. In any case, the first operational vaccinesshould not see the light of day until 2021 , being very optimistic. At that time, millions or even billions of people could be the subject of a vaccination campaign.
And then there's Johnson &Johnson (J&J), the more than 100-year-old pharmaceutical company with 250 subsidiaries in around 60 countries. According to an article published by the Reuters news agency on March 30, 2020, J&J announced a billion dollar agreement with the United States government! The goal? Obtain sufficient production capacity to produce at least one billion ready-to-use vaccines. Obviously at first glance, this is rather good news.
If a serious candidate has been chosen for a production that has just been launched, it turns out that for the time being, no test has been carried out on the human being. In reality, the first tests of this kind will only take place in September 2020. For the moment, therefore, there is no approval or certification from the health authorities. Thus, there is a certain gray area around this affair but for J&J, it is a matter of urgency leaving little choice but to skip a few steps. Its scientific manager Paul Stoffels speaks in particular of a different organization for a high-risk program.
In addition, you should know that this project receives support from the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) of the United States Department of Health. Thus, the government supports and finances the production of a vaccine of which we know practically nothing of its real performance. In short, this is a real double or quits bet. For Seth Berkley, director of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunizations (GAVI), assessing the most likely candidates and investing in those risks might not be such a bad idea.
Finally, remember that BARDA also supports research by the company Moderna. It has developed an experimental vaccine called mRNA-1273. In mid-March 2020, a first phase I trial started, involving 45 healthy adults aged 18 to 55.
