The president of the National Medicines Authority (Infarmed) announced that Portugal should receive in the second quarter of the year the first vaccines from Johnson & Johnson, a drug whose approval application was submitted today to the European regulator.
"By the time we are meeting here, the process should be formalized with the European Medicines Agency" (EMA) for the vaccine produced by Janssen, said Rui Santos Ivo at the Event Commission for monitoring the implementation of the response measures to the disease pandemic Covid-19 and the economic and social recovery process.
According to the head of Infarmed, the new single-dose Janssen (Johnson & Johnson pharmaceutical company) drug now enters the final evaluation phase and, "if all goes well" with the evaluation of its safety and efficacy, it is expected that is approved next month, with the first dose deliveries scheduled for the second quarter of this year.
At the end of January, the medical director of Janssen told Lusa that the commitment to make vaccines available in the European Union in the second quarter of this year was maintained, when Portugal will receive the first 1,25 million doses.
“The commitment to the European Union is the second quarter of 2021 and this commitment remains”, guaranteed Manuel Salavessa at the time, adding that the first 1,25 million vaccines of the North American company against Covid-19 are part of of a batch of 4,5 million that the country will receive this year.
The agreement of this pharmaceutical company with the European Commission foresees for this year 200 million doses, with an option of 200 million additional doses.
According to Rui Santos Ivo, the information available at this moment indicates that Pfizer “practically already recovered the delay that occurred in the beginning” in the delivery of vaccines, which allows Portugal to count, at the end of the first quarter, with around 1,3, XNUMX million doses, which is “practically the volume that was predicted”.
Regarding Moderna, the “information we have is that the 226.800 doses that were contracted will be delivered”, said the president of Infarmed, adding that “where a reduction is actually seen in AstraZeneca's vaccines”, since they were expected to be about 2,7 million were delivered, but which should not exceed 930 thousand doses in this phase.
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