The National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) refuses to include the Johnson & Johnson vaccine in its covid-19 vaccination programme.
Finland has committed to purchase 2.4 million doses of the vaccine, which is backed by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), but now health authorities say "there is no need" for the drug, according to a statement by THL.
Johnson and Johnson's drug, developed by its subsidiary Janssen, is an adenoviral vector vaccine, the same type as AstraZeneca's.
It has an advantage over the vaccines of its competitors, and that is that it only requires the injection of one dose and its effects last much longer.
In the United States (US) and within the European Union (EU) it has already been used on a massive scale. At the end of April, when seven million people had already received it in the US, there were reports of 8 cases of blood clots, which raised some doubts about its safety. After a new evaluation, the vaccine again received the approval of the EMA.
Vaccine 'not needed'
“In the current epidemic situation in Finland, there is no need for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, as it would be given to people over 65 years of age, like the AstraZeneca vaccine. The majority of those in this age group have already been vaccinated. However, the range of vaccines will be re-examined if the epidemic situation in Finland begins to worsen,” says Hanna Nohynek, chief physician at THL.
According to the THL statement, in the future all residents of Finland will only receive mRNA vaccines, which in practice means injections of Pfizer-Biontech or Moderna.
THL recommends that those people over 65 years of age who have received a first dose of AstraZeneca get a second jab of the same drug. However, THL gives them the option of receiving an mRNA vaccine as a second dose if they prefer.
