Johnson & Johnson is launching a major push to develop a vaccine that can neutralize the new coronavirus. By Jon CohenScience’s COVID-19 reporting is supported by the Pulitzer Center.The crowded race to develop a vaccine against the new coronavirus just received a potential billion-dollar boost: Johnson & Johnson (J&J) announced on 30 March that it and the U.S.
government, through a military research agency, would together devote up to that amount to move a candidate product made by its Janssen division across the finish line.Janssen’s vaccine is built around an engineered version of adenovirus 26 (Ad26), which normally causes common colds but has been disabled so that it cannot replicate.