Last checked at 
By Michael Erman and Manojna Maddipatla
NEW YORK, Feb 23 (Reuters) - COVID-19 vaccine makers told
Congress on Tuesday that U.S. supplies should surge in the
coming weeks due to manufacturing expansions and new vaccine
authorizations.
Executives from Pfizer Inc, Moderna Inc and
Johnson & Johnson - speaking at a hearing at the U.S.
House of Representatives - said they would be able to supply
enough vaccine to fully inoculate 130 million people in the
United States by the end of March.
The drugmakers also reaffirmed their commitments to supply
more than enough doses necessary to vaccinate all Americans by
the end of July.
Pfizer Chief Business Officer John Young said it was
plausible that there could be a surplus of vaccine in the United
States sometime in the second quarter of this year.
"We certainly hope that we're going to be in a position
where every eligible adult will be able to receive
vaccinations," Young said.
Around 44.5 million people in the United States had received
at least one dose of two-shot vaccines developed by Pfizer and
BioNTech or Moderna, as of Tuesday morning.
Johnson & Johnson's single-dose vaccine will be considered
by an outside advisory committee to the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration later this week, and emergency use authorization
could come shortly afterward.
Richard Nettles, Vice President of Medical Affairs at J&J's
Janssen Pharmaceuticals unit, said the company would be able to
ship nearly 4 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine upon
authorization and 20 million doses by the end of March.
Additional doses could also come from AstraZeneca Plc
and from Novavax Inc, which are currently
running clinical trials of their experimental vaccines.
An AstraZeneca executive said the drugmaker could supply
doses necessary to vaccinate another 25 million people by the
end of April if their vaccine is authorized by U.S. regulators.
(Reporting by Michael Erman
Editing by Bill Berkrot)
