A manufacturing error at the Emergent BioSolutions factory in Baltimore resulted in the destruction of 15 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, the Baltimore Sun reports.
The plant manufacturers the AstraZeneca vaccine under a contract. The plant has not yet been licensed to manufacture the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, but had begun doing so anyway. In the process, the plant mixed drugs for the AstraZeneca vaccine with those for the J&J vaccine, requiring the J&J doses to be destroyed.
J&J said that one batch of the doses did not meet its criteria and had to be excluded.
“This is an example of the rigorous quality control applied to each batch of drug substance,” Johnson & Johnson said about catching the bad batch. “The issue was identified and addressed with Emergent and shared with the United States Food & Drug Administration.”