Rúna Hauksdóttir Hvannberg, director of the Icelandic Medicines Agency, says that they are preparing for Janssen’s vaccine to receive a conditional marketing authorization in Europe this week.
When speaking with Fréttablaðið, Rúna says that The European Medicines Agency’s expert committee, CHMA, is currently meeting to discuss the distribution of Janssen vaccine against COVID-19.
“We have set our plan in place for this to happen on Thursday or Friday and we have decided that as soon as the European Medicines Agency issues a license, everything will be launched here so we can follow them almost completely,” says Rúna.
235 thousand doses expected.
Iceland have secured 235,000 doses of the Janssen vaccine. Unlike the AstraZeneca vaccine, the Janssen vaccine only requires one dose for it to be effective.
However, it is not known when the vaccine will arrive and when delivery can begin within Europe.
“The most important thing is that as the number of marketing licenses increases, there is a greater chance of getting vaccines,” says Rúna.
Production increase will bring more vaccines to the country.
If both Pfizer and AstraZeneca are increasing their production capacity, more vaccines will be able to be distributed quickly.
The Janssen vaccine has about 66% effectiveness, but is even more effective when it comes to preventing serious illness.
If the vaccine is granted a conditional marketing authorization, it will be added to the group of three others that have already been granted a marketing authorization.
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