The U.S. government on Aug. 5 committed more than $1 billion to Johnson & Johnson for 100 million doses of its investigational COVID-19 vaccine.
The first in-human trial for the vaccine candidate, Ad26.COV2.S, is currently taking place in the U.S. and Belgium. Johnson & Johnson used its AdVac technology to develop Ad26.COV2.S, which was also used to develop its Ebola, HIV, RSV and Zika vaccine candidates.
Pending positive trial results, Johnson & Johnson plans to manufacture more than 1 billion doses throughout 2021. The U.S. has the option to buy another 200 million doses of Ad26.COV2.S later on.