WHO approves J&J vaccine for emergency use -NHK WORLD-JAPAN -14 hours ago
The World Health Organization has approved a coronavirus vaccine developed by major drug company Johnson & Johnson for emergency use.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced at a news conference on Friday that the UN health agency has added the Johnson & Johnson product to its list of vaccines for emergency use.
That is the third such listing following one developed by US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech and the other developed by British firm AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford.
The three vaccines listed for emergency use can be supplied through the COVAX Facility--an international framework for equitable distribution of vaccines.
Tedros said the WHO is aware that some countries have suspended the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine, based on reports of blood clots in some people who received doses of the vaccine.
He said that the WHO's committee is carefully assessing the current reports on the vaccine.
He also said it is important to note that the European Medicines Agency-- the European Union's drug regulator-- has said there is " no indication of a link between the vaccine and blood clots, and that the vaccine can continue to be used while its investigation is ongoing." Britain, France and Canada continue to administer the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Tedros added, "More than 335 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered globally so far, and no deaths have been found to have been caused by COVID-19 vaccines."
