Healthcare company Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) said on Wednesday that it has signed an agreement with the US government for the large scale domestic manufacturing and delivery of 100 million doses of its Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies' SARS-CoV-2 investigational vaccine Ad26.COV2.S in the US following approval or Emergency Use Authorization by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

In collaboration with the US Department of Defense, the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) is committing over USD1bn for this agreement. The vaccine will be provided at a global not-for-profit basis for emergency pandemic use. The US government may purchase an additional 200 million doses of Ad26.COV2.S under a subsequent agreement.

Based on Janssen's AdVac technology, the Phase 1/2a first-in-human clinical trial of the vaccine candidate, Ad26.COV2.S, is underway in healthy volunteers in the US and Belgium. It evaluating one- and two-dose regimens in its clinical programme and aims to meet its goal to supply more than 1 billion doses globally through the course of 2021, provided the vaccine is safe and effective.