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Saturday, 06 March 2021 10:01

Canada clears Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine, first to approve

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Canada clears Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine, first to approve - WPRI.com

 

 

Canada's drug regulator has approved Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine, the fourth such shot to be given the green light, the government said on Friday (Mar 5), amid frustration over the slow start to the country's inoculation program.

Health experts are eager for a one-and-done option to help speed vaccination. Canada has also approved vaccines from Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca and Health Canada is the first major regulator to approve four different vaccines, said Dr Supriya Sharma, Health Canada’s chief medical adviser.

Like many countries, Canada does not have domestic production and has struggled with an immediate shortage of vaccines. The US so far isn’t allowing locally made vaccines to be exported, so Canada - like the other US neighbor, Mexico - has been forced to get vaccines from Europe and Asia.

Canada has pre-purchased 10 million Johnson & Johnson doses, with options to buy another 28 million. It was not immediately clear when Canada would get its first shipment.

“This is the fourth vaccine to be deemed safe by Canada's health experts - and with millions of doses already secured, we're one stop closer to defeating this virus,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tweeted.

The vaccine shortage is so acute in Canada that provincial governments are now saying they will extend the interval between the two doses of Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines to four months rather than three to four weeks so they can quickly inoculate more people.

“It is a reasonable recommendation. If we can get earlier doses, we don't have to wait for four months to give second doses if the supply opens up,” Sharma said.

Canadians 80 and above in the general public are only starting to get vaccinated this month and the National Advisory Committee on Immunisation said this week that extending the dose interval to four months would allow as many as 80 per cent of Canadians over the age of 16 to receive a single dose by the end of June simply with the expected supply of Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines.Canada also faces the prospect of vaccine delivery disruptions from the European Union. A shipment of over a quarter million AstraZeneca vaccines destined for Australia has been blocked from leaving the European Union in the first use of an export control system instituted by the bloc to make sure big pharma companies respect their local contracts//CNA

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