MHRA approves first single-dose COVID-19 vaccine for use in UK

LONDON: Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine named ‘Janssen’ was approved by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) for use in the United Kingdom. This vaccine, being an adenoviral vector vaccine, is same as the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine and has now become the first single-dose COVID-19 vaccine approved to be used in the UK.

MHRA, UK’s independent regulator, has approved Janssen for use on people aged 18 years and above. The decision on use of the vaccine on pregnant or breast-feeding women is pending and will be made after thorough consultation with healthcare professionals.

Janssen became the fourth coronavirus vaccine to receive authorization in UK after the vaccines of Pfizer, Moderna, and Oxford. June Raine, Chief Executive at MHRA, mentioned it as an encouraging news for the public and the healthcare sector, because now the nation has safe and effective vaccines approved to help protect people from COVID-19 infections.

The National Institute for Biological Standards and Control has been carrying out independent batch release checks on all the approved COVID-19 vaccines in the UK. Raine mentioned that they will continue to do so for Janssen vaccine as well, in order to ensure that every batch of approved vaccines meets the expected quality standards. The European Medicines Agency has also decided to add a warning about unusual blood clots with low blood platelets in the Janssen vaccine’s product information owing to review of four cases of clots and low platelets among recipients of the vaccine during the clinical trials in the United States of America. However, such events are to be listed as ‘very rare side effects’ of the vaccine.