JOHNSON & Johnson yesterday said it has selected a lead candidate vaccine for Covid-19 that will move to human trials by September and may be ready for emergency use by early next year.

The pharmaceutical giant has signed an agreement with the US government’s Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority to invest US$1 billion (RM4.3 billion) in the effort, it said in a statement.

J&J began working on the investigational vaccine, Ad26 SARS-CoV-2, in January using the same technology it used to develop a candidate vaccine for Ebola.

It uses a deactivated version of the coronavirus to try and trigger a human immune response.

The company said it is expanding its manufacturing capacity both in the US and other countries, to help it supply more than a billion doses of the vaccine around the world.

CEO Alex Gorsky said the firm is “well-positioned through our combination of scientific expertise, operational scale and financial strength to bring our resources, in collaboration with others, to accelerate the fight against this pandemic”.

J&J is also working on antiviral treatments for Covid-19.

Separately, US pharmaceutical company Moderna has moved to human trials for its vaccine candidate, as has China’s CanSinoBIO.

There are currently no approved vaccines or treatments for the disease.

Several treatments are being investigated, including the antiviral remdesivir and antimalarial drugs chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, but it is not yet clear whether they add anything to standard care. – AFP, March 31, 2020.