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The European Union is about to approve a fourth vaccine against Covid-19.
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) gave the green light to the use of Johnson & Johnson's vaccine on Thursday.
The responsible committee of the EMA recommended conditional approval of the vaccine for people aged 18 and over.
The final decision lies with the European Commission, whose approval is considered a matter of form and could be made on Thursday.
The Covid-19 vaccines from Biontech / Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca are already approved in the EU.
In contrast to these, the vaccine from Johnson & Johnson offers the advantage that a single vaccine dose should be sufficient instead of two doses.
The international community has secured a total of 200 million cans from the company this year.
Johnson & Johnson recently announced that the company expected to begin delivering the promised vaccination doses in the second quarter.
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However, Reuters learned on Tuesday from an EU representative that Johnson & Johnson is struggling with problems that could complicate the planned delivery of 55 million vaccine doses in the second quarter.
Last week Johnson & Johnson announced that the company is "under stress" to meet its agreed delivery target by the end of June due to problems with supplying vaccine ingredients and equipment, the insider said.
At the end of January, Johnson & Johnson reported an effectiveness of 66 percent for the agent in protecting against moderate to severe Covid-19 courses in its global study with around 44,000 participants.
In preventing hospitalization, the vaccine was 85 percent effective 14 days after vaccination and 100 percent effective at 28 days.
The vaccine is already approved in the US, Canada and Bahrain.