Japan could approve the second COVID-19 vaccine in May, says the health minister

The national health minister said on Sunday that his ministry could approve a second COVID-19 vaccine as early as May, as the government sees inoculations as crucial to fighting infections.

“There is a possibility of granting pharmaceutical approval as early as May or June,” Health, Labor and Welfare Minister Norihisa Tamura said during a TV program.

Tamura also said the government will be ready to consider a Johnson & Johnson application for its single-dose vaccine if one is submitted. But he has not yet decided to buy the vaccine as talks continue, he said.

The vaccine of the American pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. was the first to be approved for use in Japan in February. British PLC AstraZeneca applied for its coronavirus vaccine in early February, and Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. also requested the approval of the vaccine of the American biotechnology company Moderna Inc., last Friday.

Takeda, which handles the approval and domestic imports of about 50 million doses of Moderna, announced the filing. Earlier, he said approval could be given in May.

Japan began vaccinations in mid-February using the Pfizer Inc. vaccine. But the doses of Pfizer, imported from European factories, are insufficient.

Japan has signed agreements with the three vaccine manufacturers for a total of 314 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine, enough to inoculate 157 million people. The country’s population is around 126 million.

Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has repeatedly said that vaccinations are a crucial step in bringing the pandemic under control as soon as possible.

Tamura also said that the government intends to strengthen medical capacity with the lifting of the state of emergency for Tokyo and three surrounding prefectures. The emergency declaration covering the capital and Chiba, Kanagawa and Saitama prefectures was extended by two weeks on Friday.

“We do not want to see a new recurrence of the virus, but we need to think about the worst case scenario,” Tamura said, adding that the government aims to strengthen the health care system so that it can cope with a renaissance that is even more twice the scale of the current wave.