Health Canada has authorized use of a COVID-19 vaccine made by Johnson & Johnson, making it the first single-dose vaccine to receive approval for use in Canada.
The vaccine, produced by Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Janssen Pharmaceutical, can be stored at regular refrigerated temperatures at 2 to 8 degrees Celsius for at least three months, making it easy to distribute to the provinces and territories.
The approval of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine in Canada will add another vaccine to those already approved from Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, and AstraZeneca-Oxford.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Friday that Johnson & Johnson has agreed to provide Canada with 10 million doses of the vaccine between now and September.
Trudeau also said Pfizer will be able to deliver 3.5 million doses of vaccines—originally scheduled to be delivered this summer—over the next few months.
He said Pfizer will deliver an additional 1.5 million vaccine doses this month, and 1 million doses each in both April and May, all ahead of schedule.
“For months, we’ve been committing to you that we will get 6 million doses total of COVID vaccines by the end of March,” Trudeau said. “With these accelerated Pfizer deliveries, we will now be getting 8 million doses.”
Canada can now expect a total of 12.8 million doses of Pfizer vaccines between April and June.
Minister of Public Services and Procurement Anita Anand said delivery will be completed by the third quarter of 2021.
“In all, Canada is on track to receive at least 36.5 million doses of vaccines by the end of June and an accumulative total of 117.9 million doses of vaccines by the end of September by the four currently approved suppliers,” Anand said.
