American pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson has announced that after testing many vaccines for COVID-19, they have selected the lead vaccine candidate for the COVID-19. The company says that the experimental vaccine is expected to go into human trials by September 2020 and might become available for emergency use by early next year.

J&J began working on the vaccine back in January using the same technology it had employed to develop a vaccine for Ebola. J&J CEO Alex Gorsky said, "We have been testing the vaccine a lot and we are confident that the vaccine is safe and will be very effective.” After doing all the tests, J&J expects to receive all its clinical data on the effects of the vaccine by the end of this year. 

If all goes well, then the vaccine may be ready by 2021. Gorsky said the company is pursuing the vaccine on a not-for-profit basis but declined to estimate how much it might cost. He also added they have two back-ups in case the lead candidate doesn't work well. 

J&J said they are expanding their manufacturing facilities all over the world. Once the vaccine is ready their aim is the produce and supply a billion doses. 

Along with Johnson & Johnson, China's CanSinoBIO and US pharmaceutical company Moderna are also racing to get the COVID-19 vaccine ready, with the phase I human trials already underway. Even Israel has begun testing for vaccines. Currently there is no medicine to treat COVID-19. Scientists are researching the use of Malaria and AIDS medicines to treat COVID-19 patients

Tags

• Johnson
• Vaccine
• Covid-19

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