Boris Johnson welcomes 'encouraging' trial results of Janssen's single-dose vaccine

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Friday welcomed the positive trial results of Janssen's single-dose COVID-19 vaccine, adding if approved by UK regulators the doses will be available later this year. Johnson called the news "very encouraging as he said that the UK government has secured 30 million doses of Janssen's COVID-19 vaccine. Janssen on January 29 announced that the single-dose COVID-19 vaccine it has developed produced positive data from the phase 3 studies, showing it to be 66% effective against the virus.

Read: Novavax Vaccine Seems Effective Against Virus In UK Study

'If approved it will boost UK's vaccination drive' 

The British government had secured 30 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine from Janssen, which is owned by the American firm Johnson & Johnson. PM Johnson's government on Friday said that if the vaccine is approved by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), the doses will be available in the latter half of this year. 

Read: Novavax Vaccine Seems Effective Against COVID-19 In UK Study

"This is yet more good news from Janssen on vaccines. If this jab is approved this could significantly bolster our vaccination programme, especially as a single-dose vaccine. Once the full data has been submitted to the regulator they will consider the evidence to determine whether the vaccine meets robust standards of safety, effectiveness, and quality," UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock said in a statement on Friday. 

This comes after the UK government on Thursday announced that the Novavax vaccine has proven to be effective in trials. American pharmaceutical firm Novavax announced that its vaccine demonstrated 89% efficacy during the trials in the United Kingdom. If Novavax gets approval from UK regulators, it will become the fourth company after Pfizer, Moderna, and AstraZeneca to get authorisation for its vaccine. 

Read: UK PM Johnson Faces Criticism Over Scotland Trip In Lockdown

The inoculation drive in the United Kingdom is in full swing at the moment with more than 7 million people vaccinated so far. The UK government intends to vaccinate 15 million people by mid-February so it could start easing restrictions in the country by early March as the vaccines take a minimum of 15 days to trigger an immune response. 

Read: COVID-19: Pfizer-BioNTech Say Their Vaccine Effective Against UK, South Africa Variants

(Image Credit: AP)