FDA Updates EUA for J&J COVID-19 Vaccine to Extend Shelf Life

The FDA has amended its Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine, extending the vaccine’s shelf life from nine months to 11 months, provided the doses are stored between 2 and 8 degrees Celsius (between 35.6 and 46.4 Fahrenheit).

The single-dose vaccine is authorized as a primary vaccination for individuals 18 years of age and older and as a single booster dose at least two months after completing primary vaccination with the vaccine.

As of December 2021, only 17 million doses of the adenovirus-based J&J vaccine have been administered in the U.S., compared with 284 million of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which uses messenger RNA technology.