White House: 11M Johnson & Johnson doses coming next week

The White House said Friday that Johnson & Johnson will deliver at least 11 million doses next week, a significant increase to hit the company’s target of 20 million total doses delivered to the U.S. by the end of March.

There had been some uncertainty over whether J&J would meet its goal: Johnson & Johnson experienced uneven manufacturing, fueling some doubts in the run-up to the end of the month.

But White House coronavirus response coordinator Jeff Zients said Friday that the company is poised to meet the goal.

“The company has said they’ll deliver the 20 million by the end of March,” Zients said during a press briefing. “And from our conversations with the company they appear on track to meet that goal with at least 11 million doses delivered next week.”

The White House has been working with the company to try to increase its manufacturing. There was a relatively small number of doses, 4 million, available when the vaccine was first authorized at the end of February.