President Joe Biden is reportedly set to announce plans to purchase an additional 100 million doses of Johnson & Johnson’s (NYSE:JNJ) COVID-19 vaccine.
An NBC News report said that Biden is set to announce the purchase of the single-dose vaccines on Wednesday, according to two officials from his administration.
The purchase of doses from Johnson & Johnson, which became the third authorized COVID-19 vaccine in the U.S. last month (and the first single-dose vaccine), puts the U.S. in a position in which it has more than enough supply to vaccinate the entire population of the country. This comes after Biden recently pushed forward the timeline for having enough doses to vaccinate every American, moving it from the end of July to the end of May.
Biden is reportedly set to direct the U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services to procure the doses during a meeting with executives from J&J and Merck, having announced earlier this month that the two pharmaceutical competitors were teaming up to produce the vaccines.
Last month, the government finalized a deal with Pfizer and Moderna, the other two developers of authorized vaccines, for 200 million more doses, which would already give the U.S.enough doses for every adult even before J&J’s vaccine was greenlighted, once produced. The agreement for another 100 million doses from J&J offers more flexibility, both with the single-dose option and in the event that Pfizer or Moderna hit production snags.
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