Emergent BioSolutions was not prepared to take on the mammoth task of churning out millions of COVID-19 vaccine doses to support U.S. efforts to end the pandemic, according to a report published today in The New York Times.
Emergent was ill-equipped despite a $163 million federal contract to prepare the facility for high-volume production, according to the Times investigation, which relied on previously undisclosed internal documents and interviews with current and former federal officials and former company workers.
Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) this week announced that it will assume full responsibility for the production of its COVID-19 vaccine at the Emergent BioSolutions Bayview (Baltimore) facility — news that came days after the disclosure that a factory error resulted in 15 million discarded COVID-19 vaccines.
The New York Times — citing internal logs, a government official and a former company supervisor — claims that contamination or suspected contamination also caused Emergent between October and January to discard five lots of AstraZeneca vaccine — with each lot large enough to provide 2–3 million doses. each the equivalent of two million to three million doses.
Federal officials found the pattern of lapsed at the plant troubling, according to the newspaper.
Emergent BioSolutions meanwhile announced on April 4 that it remains on Track with respect to COVID-19 contractual commitments.
“We have been working closely with Johnson & Johnson and welcome the additional oversight and support at our Bayview facility, including increased and final sign-off of manufacturing of its bulk drug substance and supervision and direction of all Johnson & Johnson critical manufacturing operations,” Emergent CEO Robert G. Kramer said in the news release.