MANILA, Philippines (Updated 11:42 a.m.) — Pharmaceutical firm Johnson & Johnson has asked Philippine health regulators to authorize its single-dose COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use, the Food and Drug Administration said Monday.
Johnson & Johnson filed emergency use authorization last March 31, FDA Director General Eric Domingo said.
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“[The application is] now under evaluation,” Domingo told Philstar.com in a text message.
Once authorized by the country’s FDA, Johnson & Johnson will be the fifth vaccine maker to get emergency use approval in the Philippines, following Pfizer-BioNTech, AstraZeneca, Sinovac and Gamaleya Research Institute.
Last month, vaccine czar Carlito Galvez said the country was hoping to finalize the supply agreement to secure vaccines developed by Johnson & Johnson.
Global clinical trials of almost 40,000 people showed the one-shot coronavirus vaccine was 85.4% in preventing severe disease but the efficacy fell to 66.1% when including moderate forms of the disease.
The World Health Organization added the Johnson & Johnson vaccine to the list of safe and effective emergency tools against COVID-19.
The jab has also received praise for its single dosage and because it does not need to be kept in subarctic temperatures unlike the COVID-19 shots from Pfizer and Moderna, making distribution much simpler.
The vaccine also has a long shelf life of two years. Janssen Pharmaceutica, a division of Johnson & Johnson based in Belgium, is developing the vaccine. — with report from Agence France-Presse