A big dumpling!
Several weeks ago, employees of a factory in Baltimore in the United States dedicated to the manufacture of products for the manufacture of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine confused ingredients necessary for the preparation of the serum.
According to the New York Times, some 15 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine were wasted by mistake.
Workers at a Baltimore plant manufacturing two coronavirus vaccines accidentally conflated the ingredients, contaminating up to 15 million doses of Johnson & Johnson's vaccine and forcing regulators to delay authorization of the plant's production lines.
https://t.co/SQ4XgzmSiL
- The New York Times (@nytimes) April 1, 2021
Johnson & Johnson did not confirm this figure but stated that on-site quality checks “identified a batch of drug substance not meeting quality standards at its partner Emergent BioSolutions.
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And to be reassuring: “this batch has never been sent to the filling and finishing stages of our manufacturing process,” added J&J.
At the same time, the US Medicines Agency (FDA) was made aware, and "additional experts" were dispatched to oversee operations, according to the company.
"In coordination with the US Department of Health, these measures will allow us to safely deliver 24 million doses of vaccine during the month of April," said Johnson & Johnson.
The incident does not concern the doses delivered
According to the New York Times, the doses of this vaccine currently delivered to the United States are not affected because they come from the Netherlands.
But future deliveries were to come from this plant in Baltimore, whose production authorization is now delayed, explains the daily.
This J&J vaccine, which will soon arrive in France, is administered in a single injection.
However, many countries and in particular the United States rely on this vaccine to accelerate their vaccination campaign.
The US administration has ordered 100 million doses after the vaccines from Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna.
20 million doses of Johnson & Johnson's vaccine have already been distributed in March in the United States, according to the company, in accordance with the targets that had been set.
US President Joe Biden announced in early March that he wanted the United States to double its order from the company, by buying 100 million doses in addition to the 100 million that are already the subject of a contract.
