March 1, 2021 – McKesson today began distributing the COVID-19 vaccine received from Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a part of Johnson & Johnson.
The Janssen vaccine received Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Feb. 27 and is the first one-shot COVID-19 vaccine to be authorized for use in the U.S.
McKesson was selected by the U.S. government in August 2020 to operate as the centralized distributor for frozen and refrigerated COVID-19 vaccines and ancillary supply kits needed to administer them.
In December 2020, McKesson began distributing the ancillary supply kits for Pfizer BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine. Later that month, the company began distributing Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine and ancillary supply kits.
McKesson has established four dedicated distribution centers which will be specifically used to distribute the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine and future refrigerated vaccines. The U.S. government makes all program administration decisions, including where, when and how many vaccine doses McKesson will distribute.