15 million doses of J&J vaccine wasted by mistake in the US – Economy

According to the North American publication, cited by the agency France-Presse, a few weeks ago the employees of the factory in question, managed by the company Emergent BioSolutions, partner of J&J, confused the ingredients necessary for the manufacture of the vaccine.Contacted by AFP, Johnson & Johnson did not confirm the figure of 15 million, but stated that quality checks carried out in place “identified a batch of drug substance that did not meet the quality standards of Emergent BioSolutions, a unit that is not yet authorized to manufacture the drug substance for our vaccine against covid-19 “.

“This batch did not go through the filling and finishing stages of our manufacturing process,” added J&J in a statement.The American drug agency (FDA) was made aware of the situation, and “supplemental specialists” were moved to the site to supervise 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 the vaccine during the month of April,” said Johnson & Johnson.

The New York Times states that the doses of the vaccine currently delivered in the United States are not affected, because they come from the Netherlands.

However, future deliveries are expected to originate at the Baltimore plant in the state of Maryland (northeast), although manufacturing authorization is still overdue, according to the daily.

The J&J vaccine is administered in a single dose, so 15 million doses are equivalent to 15 million vaccinated people.

According to the company, 20 million vaccines have already been distributed in March in the United States, according to the objectives set.

The President of the United States, Joe Biden, had announced in early March that he would seek to double the country’s orders by the company, buying another 100 million vaccines, in addition to the 100 million already contracted.

The United States has recorded 875 deaths from covid-19 in the past 24 hours, in addition to 61,240 new cases, according to the independent count by the American University Johns Hopkins.

The covid-19 pandemic caused at least 2,805,004 deaths worldwide, resulting from more than 128.1 million cases of infection, according to a report made by the French agency AFP.