Merck, a US pharmaceutical company, helps competitor J&J vaccine production (general)

Biden “Secure adult quantity by May”
Acceleration of securing supply due to unusual collaboration

[아시아경제 조현의 기자] U.S. President Joe Biden said that by the end of May, enough COVID-19 vaccines will be available to all American adults. It was two months ahead of the previous target, the end of July, and the decision of multinational pharmaceutical company Merck to take over the production of vaccines for rival Johnson & Jones played a decisive role.

President Biden said in a speech at the White House on the afternoon of the 2nd (local time), “We are on the path to supply enough vaccines to all American adults.” On the 16th of last month, it revised the supply plan again less than a month after it said, “We will secure 600 million doses of vaccine by the end of July so that it is enough for all Americans to be vaccinated.”

The acceleration in securing supplies in the U.S. was when the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, a one-time vaccination type vaccine, began production and inoculation in earnest. Johnson & Johnson plans to supply 100 million servings to the United States by the first half of this year. Unlike the existing vaccine, which requires two doses, it is equivalent to 100 million people, considering that only one dose is required.

In particular, Merck, a multinational pharmaceutical company in the United States, the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer, led by the White House, is helping to produce Johnson & Johnson vaccines. President Biden enforced the cooperation between Merck and Johnson & Johnson by invoking the Defense Goods Production Act on this day. The Washington Post, which first reported the production cooperation between Merck and Johnson & Johnson, said, “The cooperation between competitors is unusual.”

Merck plans to produce Johnson & Johnson vaccines around the clock at two production facilities in the United States. One is responsible for the final stages of production, where the vaccine material is bottled and packaged, and the other produces the vaccine directly to speed up supply.

An anonymous government official told The Washington Post, “The Biden administration has been trying to find additional production facilities since the first day of inauguration when it learned that Johnson & Johnson was lagging behind in vaccine production.”

However, even if enough vaccine quantities are supplied to all adults by the end of May, the distribution and vaccination process require additional costs and time, and as it has to persuade some adults who refuse vaccination, group immunity cannot be seen until then. .

“We need people to get shots in the arms of millions of Americans,” President Biden said. “The vaccine supply alone is not enough,” said President Biden. To the question of’when can the United States return to normal?’, he added, “I hope that will happen around this time next year.”

Johnson & Johnson, a one-time vaccination vaccine, is easy to store and remains effective for more than 3 months at normal refrigeration temperatures. In phase 3 clinical trials conducted in eight around the world, the average preventive effect was 66%. By region, the United States was the highest at 72%, and Latin America and South Africa at 66% and 57%, respectively.

Merck has also started developing a vaccine for Corona 19 since August of last year, but halted it on January 25 due to the interim results of the first clinical trial that it was not able to make enough antibodies. Merck, who tried to create a Corona 19 vaccine based on the measles vaccine, decided that even after the development was completed, the vaccine efficacy would not reach the lowest line (50%) suggested by the World Health Organization (WHO), and decided to focus only on the treatment for Corona 19.

Reporter Jo Hyun’s [email protected]