Fifteen million doses of Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose COVID-19 vaccine were ruined at a Baltimore manufacturing plant after vaccine ingredients were confused. While the Food and Drug Administration inspects the manufacturing plant, vaccine shipments to Americans may suffer delays.
The manufacturing plant, owned by Emergent BioSolutions, was contracted to produce several million more vaccines, but after the mishap, the FDA has announced the plant is to halt production until their investigation is complete.
A spokesperson for Johnson & Johnson since confirmed that the Baltimore plant “did not meet quality standards” and was “never advanced to the filling and finishing stages of our manufacturing process.”
“This is an example of the rigorous quality control applied to each batch of drug substance,” the spokesperson continued. “The issue was identified and addressed with Emergent and shared with the United States Food & Drug Administration.”
Johnson & Johnson has since confirmed that the company is still on track to deliver 24 million single-shot vaccine doses in April and 100 million doses by the end of May.
More than 150 million COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered to Americans as of April 1. President Joe Biden initially promised to oversee 100 million COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in his first 100 days in office. Seeing his goal surpassed in less than half the time expected, Biden then kick up his goal to 200 million doses in 100 days.
