The U.K.’s medicines regulator on Friday approved Janssen’s single-dose Covid-19 vaccine for use.
Britain’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency said that doses were expected to be available in the U.K. later this year.
The British government’s vaccine taskforce secured 20 million doses, amending an earlier order for 30 million after what the government described as “unprecedented scale and pace” in administering vaccines.
Janssen is a pharmaceutical company of Johnson & Johnson. The vaccine has been found to be 67% effective in preventing infections and 85% effective in preventing severe cases of COVID-19 and hospitalizations.
The approval of the J&J vaccine brings the total tally of authorized vaccines in the UK up to four, with the Moderna, Pfizer-BioNtech, and AstraZeneca vaccines having been already approved and used in the country.
U.K. Health Minister Matt Hancock said Friday that the approval of the Janssen vaccine will boost the country’s “hugely successful” vaccination program.
“As Janssen is a single-dose vaccine, it will play an important role in the months to come as we redouble our efforts to encourage everyone to get their jabs and potentially begin a booster program later this year,” he said in a statement.
