Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ), through its Janssen subsidiary, will collaborate with a US government agency, the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), to expedite development of a coronavirus vaccine. BARDA will provide funding to bring a candidate into Phase I clinical studies, with further support possible. Previously, Janssen developed a vaccine for Ebola, a similar infection to COVID-19, as well as vaccine candidates for Zika, RSV and HIV.

Johnson & Johnson is also working with global partners to screen its library of antiviral molecules to discover other potential candidates for COVID-19. At the same time, Janssen will prepare to scale up its production and manufacturing capacity to meet the needs for combating the COVID-19 epidemic.

BARDA is part of the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) at the US Department of Health and Human Services.

"Developing an effective vaccine will be critical if we are to protect people against the novel coronavirus and combat future outbreaks," said Paul Stoffels, MD, Vice Chairman of the Executive Committee and Chief Scientific Officer, Johnson & Johnson. "This partnership will ensure that vital research is made possible at rapid speed and underscores the importance of public-private partnerships to tackle the worldwide novel coronavirus epidemic. We are also in discussions with other partners, that if we have a vaccine candidate with potential, we aim to make it accessible to China and other parts of the world."

The vaccine program will use Janssen's AdVac and PERC6 technologies, which can ramp up production of any vaccine candidate quickly, the company says.

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Disclosure: none.