The World Health Organization on Friday approved emergency use of the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Johnson & Johnson JNJ,
and added to its Covax program, which aims to ensure vaccine equality for lower-income countries. “All new, safe and effective devices against COVID-19 are another step closer to controlling the pandemic,” said WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “But the hope that these devices come about will not come true if they are not available to everyone in every country.” The J&J vaccine has an advantage over other useful ones. it is just a single dose and does not have the same cooling requirements as the vaccines developed by Pfizer Inc. PFE,
and German partner BioNTech SE BNTX,
or the one developed by Moderna Inc. MRNA,
These two pictures require two doses weeks apart. Johnson & Johnson shares rose 0.3% on Friday and are up 27% in the past 12 months.