Pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson announced on Monday that it plans to initiate human clinical trials of its Covid-19 vaccine candidate by September, and anticipates the first batches of the vaccine could be available for emergency use by early next year.
The vaccine development comes as part of a partnership between Johnson & Johnson and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), which is part of the US Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response.
BARDA and Johnson & Johnson “together have committed more than $1 billion of investment to co-fund vaccine research, development, and clinical testing,” according to a press release from Johnson & Johnson.
“The world is facing an urgent public health crisis and we are committed to doing our part to make a COVID-19 vaccine available and affordable globally as quickly as possible,” Johnson & Johnson Chairman and CEO Alex Gorsky said in the press release on Monday.
“As the world’s largest healthcare company, we feel a deep responsibility to improve the health of people around the world every day,” Gorksy said. “Johnson & Johnson is well positioned through our combination of scientific expertise, operational scale and financial strength to bring our resources in collaboration with others to accelerate the fight against this pandemic.”