Employees working in the Rovi laboratories in Madrid, where doses of Moderna's vaccine are manufactured.Álvaro García
The Spanish pharmaceutical company Rovi, one of Moderna's production sites for the anticovid vaccine, is investigating the possible contamination of three batches of injections after the Japanese Ministry of Health suspended this Thursday "as a precautionary measure" the use of 1 63 million doses after finding "foreign materials" inside.
The company has not stopped the production of the vaccine in Spain.
At the moment, neither Rovi nor Moderna have offered this newspaper a response to the withdrawal of their products in the Asian country.
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Rovi is the strategic partner chosen by Moderna to manufacture its vaccines in Spain. The pharmaceutical company currently has the capacity to complete the manufacture of 600 million annual doses in the final phases of filling and finishing, a process that plans to expand to 1,400 million annual doses at its plant in San Sebastián de los Reyes (Madrid). In addition, the company also plans to manufacture the strategic raw material for Moderna's vaccines, which uses the novel messenger RNA technology, at its Granada plant, with a production capacity equivalent to 100 million annual doses.
Japan has withdrawn the Moderna doses a week after a domestic distributor detected some contaminated vials, Reuters reports.
Both the Japanese and Moderna governments have explained that no safety or efficacy problems have been detected, and that the suspension is just a precautionary measure.
In any case, Japanese companies have had to cancel vaccinations scheduled for this day on Thursday.
Yoshihide Suga, the Prime Minister of Japan at a press conference announcing the extension of the state of alarm.
On video, statements about the contamination of the vaccine Moderna.POOL |
VIDEO: QUALITY-REUTERS
Meanwhile, Moderna has issued a statement in which it confirms that it has been notified of cases of "foreign materials" in several vials of its vaccine against covid-19.
"The company is investigating the reports and remains committed to working with its Japanese partner, Takeda [distributor of the vaccine in the country], and regulators to address the matter."
A spokesman for the Japanese Ministry of Health explained to Reuters that Takeda found the first contaminated vials on August 16, and referred the matter to the government on Wednesday.
The delay in notification was due to Takeda needing time to gather information on what doses were affected and where in the country they had been distributed, the spokesperson added.
Moderna believes that the contamination could be due to a manufacturing problem in one of the production lines of the factory located in Spain. Meanwhile, Rovi is investigating possible contamination of the doses, which in any case appears to be limited to a few batches destined for Japan. Rovi shares fell 4.6% at the start of the day.
