1 billion COVID-19 vaccines: Johnson & Johnson plans human trials by September
The race to a COVID-19 vaccine... is heating up quickly. Healthcare giant Johnson & Johnson just announced a lead vaccine candidate for COVID-19, and expects to start human clinical trials by September 2020. J&J will then try to churn out over 1B doses of the vaccine by the end of 2021. The first batches could be widely available for emergency use by early next year.
- A speed of light time-frame (in vaccine years): It usually takes around 6 years of research before a vaccine candidate is even considered for approval. This took less than 3 months.
- J&J started researching in January, so the early 2021 batch-ready date is extremely ambitious. FYI, the Ebola vaccine was finally just approved in December — the virus broke out in 2014...
How is this even possible... An earth-shattering pandemic coupled with a looming global recession tends to push some limits. In other words, "the impediment to action advances action." That's why J&J and the US Dept of Health are expanding their partnership to commit over $1B to the vaccine's research/development.
- Rapid Scaling: J&J will use some of this $$$ to quickly expand its global vaccine manufacturing capacity. 1B doses by the end of 2021 means going 0 to 100 (real quick).
- Not-for-Profit: This is key — The vaccine will be sold on a not-for-profit price (to make it globally affordable).
The biggest non-profit puppy ever?... J&J is just one of the many companies racing to develop a COVID-19 vaccine — the big difference from most others is that J&J's isn't for-profit.
- Moderna has already begun human trials, and Pfizer is teaming up with BioNTech to start trials in April.
- Meanwhile, companies like Gilead are testing the use of already-existing drugs to treat COVID-19.
- If J&J wins the race, profit-chasing pharma companies will lose out on their biggest business opportunity ever (great for us, sucks for them).