Federal officials had to quarantine and return thousands of doses of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine in two different states after they got too cold in the shipping process.
Army General Gustave Perna, the CEO of Operation Warp Speed, told reporters on Wednesday that an “anomaly” caused two trays at different locations in California to drop to minus 92 degrees Celsius.
The Pfizer vaccine requires a storage temperature of minus 80 degrees Celsius.
Perna said they don’t know how it happened or what the effect on the vaccines will be.
“We locked those bins. They never left the truck, and we immediately took them back to Pfizer and sent shipments immediately to replace them,” Perna said.
Perna said federal health officials from multiple agencies are working with Pfizer “to determine whether that anomaly is safe or not, but we’re not taking any risk and we can see it.”
Perna said the “anomaly” also occurred in Alabama.
“We were able to stop and quarantine the vaccine, stop it and get a replacement shipment to Alabama,” he said.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, each container contains a minimum of 975 doses each.
Still, Perna said distribution remains on track. The federal government will send states and other jurisdictions an additional 2 million doses of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine next week.
If Moderna’s vaccine is approved by the Food and Drug Administration in the coming days, the administration will allocate nearly 5.9 million doses that will also be delivered next week, with a total of 20 million doses due by the end of the month. Delivered.
The FDA’s Advisory Committee on Vaccines and Related Biological Products, an independent group of medical experts, will vote Thursday on whether or not to recommend the FDA honor Moderna’s request for emergencies.
Perna said he expects the Moderna vaccine will be spread to more rural areas and long-term care facilities than Pfizer’s.
The administration will have more doses available because Moderna was able to scale up production quickly and that vaccine does not require ultra-cold storage.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration is continuing negotiations with Pfizer for additional doses by mid-next year.
Moncef Slaoui, chief science adviser for Operation Warp Speed, said the government is in active talks with Pfizer to secure an additional 100 million doses, despite the company’s warning that it won’t be able to deliver more until next summer.
During an interview with CNNs Sanjay Gupta earlier this week, CEO Albert Bourla Pfizer said is still working out the timeline with the administration.
Alex Azar, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, told reporters that the administration is working to help Pfizer maximize manufacturing capacity after the company recently informed the administration of “manufacturing challenges.”
“We were recently made aware by them of the various challenges they may face in their production and we will ensure that, by whatever mechanism, we provide full support to ensure that they can produce for the American people , ”said Azar.
He did not go into what those challenges were or how they would affect production.
The government has an initial contract for 100 million doses, but declined to exercise an option to extend it to 500 million.
“You know, they are now producing at their maximum capacity to deliver the 100 million, that’s in the first installment of the contract with us,” said Azar.
He added that because Pfizer did not want federal funding to aid in the production and development of its vaccine, the government does not have as much information about the company’s manufacturing capabilities and supply issues.
“Part of our ongoing discussions is to fix that and get a better understanding of what they are doing, what challenges they face, as they have made significant commitments to us and others,” said Azar, who noted that Pfizer ultimately only to make half of what she thought they could produce this year.