Biden "Adult Supply Secured by May"
Unprecedented Collaboration Accelerates Supply 확보
[Asia Economy Reporter Cho Hyun-ui] U.S. President Joe Biden announced that by the end of May, the United States will have secured enough COVID-19 vaccine doses to supply all American adults. This is two months ahead of the original goal of the end of July, with the decisive factor being the multinational pharmaceutical company Merck agreeing to produce vaccines for its competitor Johnson & Johnson.
In a White House speech on the afternoon of the 2nd (local time), President Biden said, "We are on track to supply enough vaccines for all American adults." This revision of the supply plan came less than a month after he announced on the 16th of last month that 600 million doses would be secured by the end of July to vaccinate all Americans.
The acceleration in securing vaccine doses in the U.S. came as the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine began full-scale production and administration. Johnson & Johnson plans to supply 100 million doses to the U.S. by the first half of this year. Considering that it requires only one dose, unlike existing vaccines that require two doses, this corresponds to enough doses for 100 million people.
In particular, the White House's leadership in having Merck, the world's largest vaccine manufacturer and a U.S.-based multinational pharmaceutical company, assist in producing the Johnson & Johnson vaccine has been effective. President Biden invoked the Defense Production Act to support the cooperation between Merck and Johnson & Johnson. The Washington Post, which first reported on the production cooperation between the competitors, described it as an "unprecedented situation."
Merck plans to produce the Johnson & Johnson vaccine 24 hours a day at two production facilities in the U.S. One facility will handle the final stage of production, where the vaccine substance is filled into vials and packaged, while the other will directly produce the vaccine to increase supply speed.
An anonymous government official told the Washington Post in an interview, "The Biden administration has been working to find additional production facilities since the first day of the administration after realizing that Johnson & Johnson was behind in vaccine production."
However, even if enough vaccine doses are supplied by the end of May to vaccinate all adults, additional costs and time will be required for distribution and administration, and some adults who refuse vaccination will need to be persuaded, so it cannot be assumed that herd immunity will be achieved by then.
Considering this, President Biden stated, "Vaccine supply alone is not enough," adding, "We need people to put shots into the arms of millions of Americans." In response to a question about when the U.S. can return to normal, he added, "I hope it will be around this time next year."
The single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine is also easy to store, maintaining efficacy for more than three months at regular refrigeration temperatures. In phase 3 clinical trials conducted in eight countries worldwide, the average efficacy was 66%. By region, the U.S. showed the highest efficacy at 72%, with Latin America and South Africa showing 66% and 57%, respectively.
Merck began developing a COVID-19 vaccine in August last year but halted the effort on January 25th after interim results from phase 1 clinical trials showed insufficient antibody production. Merck, which attempted to develop a COVID-19 vaccine based on the measles vaccine, decided to focus solely on COVID-19 treatments, believing that even if development was completed, the vaccine's efficacy would not meet the World Health Organization (WHO) minimum threshold of 50%.
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
