The Food and Drug Administration is investigating after 15 million Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines were destroyed.
Employees at a chemical plant in Baltimore run by Emergent Biosolutions mixed up ingredients from two vaccines that they were manufacturing. While this does not affect Johnson & Johnson vaccines created in the Netherlands that have already been distributed, future shipments will most definitely be impacted.
This “human error” has resulted in 15 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine being ruined, according to the Times, who initially reported the issue.
In a statement following the Times report, Johnson & Johnson stated that the “quality control process identified one batch of drug substance that did not meet quality standards at Emergent Biosolutions.” The faulty doses never made it to the packaging stage.
Luckily, the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are available in bulk and will continue to be issued in the U.S. Therefore, the country’s overall distribution will not be interrupted. However, the delay will throw a wrench in the plan to utilize single shot COVID-19 vaccinations, which is what the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is.
The company will now send experts to oversee the manufacturing process to ensure that this magnitude error is prevented in the future.
