Johnson & Johnson, Novavax ink vaccine deal with UK

Yahoo Finance’s Alexis Christoforous and Brian Sozzi speak with Anjalee Khemlani for the latest on COVID-19 and the race for a vaccine.

Video Transcript

BRIAN SOZZI: Johnson & Johnson and other drug suppliers have buyers lined up for a potential COVID-19 vaccine. Several European countries have said they will line up to be a customer when the vaccine is available. Yahoo Finance's health care reporter Anjalee Khemlani joins us now for more. Anjalee, what do these deals mean for the companies involved?

ANJALEE KHEMLANI: Thanks, Brian. So what it is is actually a number of companies that we already know are providing the doses to the US government, as well as have been working with other countries, have now struck deals with the UK and the European Union. So we have Johnson & Johnson with 200 million to the European Union. That's in discussion, as well as AstraZeneca with 400 million doses for the European Union, and Novavax now with 60 million for the UK.

And those are some really important deals, because we know that the demand on this industry is so huge right now, and whether or not they're going to be able to fulfill these really all at once, or if they are going to be prioritizing certain areas or certain regions of the world first is a question, and whether or not they can actually meet that demand. Right now, many of these are producing their vaccines at-risk, which means that they are anticipating some level of distribution, possibly by the end of this year. Brian?

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: Anjalee, what does this mean for the timing for getting a vaccine produced at all?

ANJALEE KHEMLANI: It does not change the timeline. Right now, what we're seeing is some Phase III trials. So of the companies that I've mentioned, are really only a few. AstraZeneca in combination with Oxford University is one of those.

And so we're seeing that a lot of these companies are going to be getting into the late-stage trials. And those late-stage trials involve a lot of-- sort of a longer wait period, because they have to test the effectiveness of the vaccine. So right now, there are concerns about whether or not the US will be able to produce a vaccine by the fall. But more than likely, it's going to be by the end of 2020.