The FDA and Johnson & Johnson are expected to announce soon that the contamination problems at an Emergent BioSolutions manufacturing plant in Baltimore have been resolved, The Wall Street Journal reported May 27.
In March, about 15 million Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine doses were ruined at a Baltimore Emergent BioSolutions plant. The doses were ruined after employees mixed up ingredients for Johnson & Johnson's and AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccines, as AstraZeneca had also contracted with Emergent to make its vaccines there. HHS ordered Emergent to stop making the AstraZeneca vaccine at that plant to avoid further mistakes.
Emergent promised to implement several corrective actions during May and June, all of which need to be achieved before the site can go back to producing COVID-19 vaccines.
Once the plant is authorized to continue manufacturing COVID-19 vaccines, it could help the U.S. reach its goal of sharing 20 million doses from Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer and Moderna with the rest of the world by the end of June.