Thirty million to 50 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine reportedly rest idle in a Maryland facility waiting to be shipped.
The vaccines are stored in Emergent BioSolutions Inc’s Baltimore plant as the drug manufacturer waits on the Food and Drug Administration to permit the doses’ release, according to a report citing sources “familiar with the matter.”
An exact estimate as to the number of doses in the facility is unable to be determined since Emergent merely manufactures the raw substance required for the vaccine without placing it in vials, a source said.
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Emergent’s manufacturing of the vaccine was suspended in April when the Johnson & Johnson vaccine was discovered to have been contaminated by AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 shots, Reuters reported.
The corruption affected about 15 million doses and held back the vaccine’s deployment for weeks, the report said.
The material in the Baltimore facility, which has sat dormant since before the April suspension, might be enough to fill 50 million vials, according to the sources.
Nine batches of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine and three from AstraZeneca have received clearance from the FDA.
Emergent has begun to manufacture new vaccine material, but the FDA has issued no guidance regarding when it will inspect the Maryland plant, according to the report.
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The agency bases its approvals for vaccine batches upon facility reviews and quality testing.
