Coronavirus Vaccine Underway | RxWiki

(RxWiki News) As the coronavirus outbreak continues, at least one company has said it is working on a vaccine.

Johnson & Johnson announced that Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies (a J&J subsidiary) has started to develop a vaccine against 2019-nCoV, the virus behind the outbreak that started in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China, last month.

The company said it plans to use the same technologies as other vaccines for Ebola, Zika and RSV.

As of Jan. 26, this outbreak had resulted in more than 2,000 reported infections and more than 50 deaths in China, as well as infections in several other countries, including the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

As of Jan. 31, six cases had been confirmed in the US, the CDC reported. Cases had been documented in Arizona, California, Illinois and Washington. There were 121 pending cases (pending testing) in the US, the CDC reported.

Besides China and the US, the locations with confirmed 2019-nCoV cases included Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Australia, Cambodia, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Spain, Malaysia, Nepal, Philippines, Russia, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, the Republic of Korea, United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and Vietnam.

The CDC said it will continue to provide information and guidance as it becomes available.

Speak with your health care provider if you have any questions.

Written by Anyssa Garza, PharmD, BCMAS