This is news we would gladly have done without… After delivery delays for the AstraZeneca vaccine back in February, the French Health Minister also announced Janssen laboratory – American group Johnson & Johnson subsidiary – vaccine will arrive later than expected. “It should arrive in May” instead of April, the minister explains, as he has to change vaccination plans, because the government was planning to distribute 2.7 million doses in April.
“The laboratory let us know April seemed difficult” a source close to the Health Ministry explained. They went on: “the hypothesis is still being validated, it’s the ‘worst case scenario’”. Yet, there is good news for the overall vaccination campaign: “we expect we no longer have dose pressure” despite this delivery delay, the Minister adds. And for good reason: over 30 million doses are to be shipped to France in April, for the three vaccines already marketed.
The campaign is then expected to increase anyway in April, and even more in May so that – excluding mishap – everyone willing to get vaccinated can be by the end of the summer. For the record, Johnson & Johnson filed marketing authorization to the European Medicines Agency a few days ago. The file is to be studied in March. Then, the Haute Autorité de Santé will have to decide if they recommend the upcoming vaccine or not.
