Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday the United States has brokered a deal between Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N) and the COVAX vaccine-sharing program for the delivery of the company's COVID-19 vaccine to people living in conflict zones, APA reports citing CNBC.
He announced the agreement at the opening of a virtual meeting of global foreign ministers convened by Washington on the COVID-19 pandemic.
"We need to ensure that people who cannot be reached by government vaccination campaigns aren't left out of our efforts. They need to be protected too," Blinken said.
A senior administration official said the deal means doses of J&J's vaccine can be distributed in conflict zones and other humanitarian settings by organizations other than governments, which have in the past been restricted by liability concerns.
Under the deal, 300,000 doses of J&J's single-shot vaccine would be made available to frontline humanitarian workers and UN peacekeepers, the official said.
Officials did not provide a total number of doses that would be delivered to conflict zones under the deal, when, or to which countries. J&J's vaccine has faced regulatory and manufacturing issues after contamination at a Baltimore factory halted U.S. production in April.
Blinken also announced a Global COVID Corps in which the private sector would help countries with supply chains and vaccines sites.
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