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Tedros Adanom Gebreyesus PHOTO: Reuters
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The World Health Organization (WHO) today approved the single-dose vaccine against KOVID-19 of the American pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson (Johnson & Johnson), news agencies reported, citing a WHO statement.
“Any new safe and effective tool against COVID-19 is another step towards controlling the pandemic,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adanom Gebreyesus.
The WHO statement says that there is enough data from a large number of clinical trials that show that the Johnson and Johnson vaccine is effective in adults, BTA reported.
According to a large study conducted on three continents, this drug is effective in 85 percent of cases and protects against serious illness, hospitalization and death. It provides strong protection even in countries such as the Republic of South Africa, where variants of the virus have been identified that appear to be less affected by other approved vaccines, including that of the British-Swedish company AstraZeneca, the Associated Press reported.
KOVAX, the UN-backed international program to provide vaccines against KOVID-19 to poorer countries, has already announced that it has a preliminary agreement with Johnson and Johnson to supply 500 million doses, which is not yet legally binding. It is hoped that the company will be able to provide at least part of these doses in the coming months.
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