Covid-19 roundup: Mod­er­na's jab gains ap­proval in Japan and South Ko­rea; J&J and Gavi reach agree­ment for 200M more dos­es

While Japan is ex­pe­ri­enc­ing its worst spike in Covid-19 deaths since ear­ly Feb­ru­ary, its min­istry of health has ap­proved Mod­er­na’s Covid-19 vac­cine for use.

Dis­tri­b­u­tion of the vac­cine will be­gin in Japan im­me­di­ate­ly, Take­da said in a state­ment.

The ap­proval is a re­sult of a three-way agree­ment with the Japan Min­istry of Health, La­bor and Wel­fare, Mod­er­na and Take­da to dis­trib­ute 50 mil­lion dos­es with­in the first half of 2021. No­vavax will help man­u­fac­ture the jab in Japan. The ap­proval comes fol­low­ing pos­i­tive clin­i­cal da­ta from Take­da’s Phase I/II clin­i­cal tri­al of the vac­cine in Japan, which the com­pa­ny said shows re­sults con­sis­tent with those from the US tri­als.

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