Walgreens Executive Says Covid Widespread Vaccines Will Soon Be Available

According to Walgreens senior vice president of pharmacy and health care, Rick Gates, COVID-19 vaccines are still hard to come back right now but this should change by spring.

The company is aiming to start vaccinations this Friday at some of its stores as part of a federal program but will have limited doses and only for high priority groups.

Gates is optimistic that a vaccine developed by Johnson & Johnson could boost supply. J&J had applied for emergency authorization from the FDA last week, after releasing data showing its vaccine was about 66% effective in protecting against the virus. It is a one-shot vaccine and can be stored in the refrigerator for months.

“I’d say late March, early April will be the timeline that you’ll have it more broadly across all of our stores across the nation of pharmacies and other places to start vaccinations,” he said at CNBC’s Healthy Returns virtual event this week.

The company is a part of a federal pharmacy program that will ship doses directly to drugstores this week. Stores in 15 states, along with Chicago and New York City, will be receiving the limited doses.

This week the Biden administration had also said that it would be shipping vaccines to community health centers next week.

According to the CDC, so far roughly 43.2 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine have been administered across the country and only 9.8 million people have received two doses of the shot.

“It’s just good news for all of us that there’s going to be more vaccine available,” said Gates about Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine.

Disclaimer: We have no position in any of the companies mentioned and have not been compensated for this article.