Johnson & Johnson CEO: Possible COVID-19 vaccine should be available by early 2021

Johnson & Johnson has announced that it has selected a lead COVID-19 vaccine candidate and expects to start Phase One human clinical trials by September at the latest.

CEO Alex Gorsky said that his company expects at least interim results from the trials likely in December or, at the latest, in January next year.

He further said that by early 2021 his company should be in a position to make hundreds of millions of doses available and one billion by the end of the year.

Gorsky was speaking with CNBC’s “Squawk Box” today.

“…we expect to have results, interim results at least, from our trials likely in December at the latest early January,” said Gorsky, according to the interview’s unofficial transcript US and Global News received from NBCUniversal, the owner of CNBC. “That should put us in position early in 2021 to literally have hundreds of millions of doses available and by the end of the year up to 1 billion.”

Before starting the interview, show co-anchor Andrew Ross Sorkin told the viewers that Johnson & Johnson had just announced the selection of a lead COVID-19 vaccine candidate and expected to start the Phase One human trials by September. He asked Gorsky what had gone into it and why he was so optimistic about it.

“…we’re very excited about the announcement that we’re making this morning about the partnership we’re doing with BARTA, which is the government agency responsible for pandemics and vaccines and what we’re doing to accelerate our development but also, our production for something against COVID-19,” replied Gorsky.

He added that Johnson & Johnson had been working in the immunology field for some time.

“And you know, really, this started decades ago. We’ve been working in the immunology field for some time. We’ve been working in areas, for example, like SARS, Ebola, HIV,” said Gorsky.

He then shared the reason behind his optimism.

“And I think what gives us confidence is based upon the work that we have done with this vaccine platform, we have very good early indicators that not only can we depend on this to be a safe vaccine base, but also one that will ultimately be effective based on all the early testing and modeling that we’ve been doing,” Gorsky added.

He further added that creating a vaccine that can be produced in large quantities was equally important.

“You know, as you mentioned earlier, we expect to begin first human testing in September,” stated Gorsky. “But, in parallel, not only do you need a safe and effective vaccine but you also need to have one that can be produced in large volumes.”

He revealed Johnson & Johnson will do that in the US.

“We are going to be doing that at risk simultaneously right here in the United States,” said Gorsky.

Watch the full interview on CNBC’s website, here.

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