European Union flag. (Flickr/Bankenverband - Bundesve)The European Union (EU) has approved the use of the single-dose COVID-19 vaccine developed by the United States (US) based pharmaceutical major Johnson & Johnson (J&J), reports Economic Times.
This makes J&J's vaccine the fourth jab to have been approved for administration in the 27 nations which are part of the EU. The other approved vaccines include those developed by Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca-Oxford.
The latest approval to J&J vaccine is likely to give a boost to the block's vaccination programme, even though the first shipments of J&J doses may not arrive in European countries until April.
European Medicines Agency (EMA), the EU drug regulator, noted that the clinical trials involving volunteers in the United States, South Africa and South American countries found the Johnson & Johnson vaccine was 67 per cent effective at preventing people from getting COVID-19.
EMA also observed that the side effects were observed to be "usually mild or moderate" which cleared within a couple of days, including pain at the injection site, headache, tiredness, muscle pain and nausea.
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