COVID-19 Vaccine Manufacturing Delays Expected
A manufacturing plant that was set to produce the Janssen (Johnson & Johnson) vaccine mixed up the ingredients of 2 vaccines.
There will be delays in the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson single-shot COVID-19 vaccine, Ad26.COV2.S, due to the vaccine’s ingredients being mixed with another. The incident occurred at the Emergent Biosolutions manufacturing plant in Baltimore, which is a J&J partner who will produce the vaccine.
The plant lost up to 15 million vaccine doses, according to a report in the NY Times.
“This quality control process identified one batch of drug substance that did not meet quality standards at Emergent Biosolutions, a site not yet authorized to manufacture drug substance for our COVID-19 vaccine. This batch was never advanced to the filling and finishing stages of our manufacturing process,” J&J said in a statement last night.
Emergent also has a partnership with AstraZeneca to produce their COVID-19 vaccine.
This loss is expected to cause delays as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) works with J&J and Emergent to ensure the quality and safety of vaccine production.
The company said they still plan to deliver 100 million vaccines to the United States in the first half of 2021, with an aim to deliver those doses by the end of May.
