COVID-19 Quick Takes: J&J vaccine authorized in EU as some EMA states pause AZ vaccine deployment; plus Genentech, Moderna, Novavax, Merck-Ridgeback, Atea and SerImmune
The European Commission granted conditional marketing authorization to COVID-19 Vaccine Janssen on Thursday, hours after EMA’s CHMP issued a positive recommendation for application. The single-shot adenoviral vector vaccine from Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) is the fourth COVID-19 vaccine authorized in the EU. The others are two-shot vaccines: Comirnaty (BNT162b2) from Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) and BioNTech SE (NASDAQ:BNTX), COVID-19 Vaccine Moderna (mRNA-1273) from Moderna Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA) and COVID-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca from AstraZeneca plc (LSE:AZN; NASDAQ:AZN).
Separately, the Danish Health Authority and some other EMA members paused immunizations with COVID-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca as a safety precaution following reports of thromboembolic and other blood clot events, including one death, in individuals given the adenoviral vector vaccine...