(Reuters) – The United States has put Johnson and Johnson in charge of a plant that has ruined 15 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine and has stopped British drug maker AstraZeneca Plc from using the facility, a senior health official said Saturday.
J&J said it “took full responsibility” of the Emergent BioSolutions facility in Baltimore, reiterating that it will deliver 100 million doses to the government by the end of May.
The Department of Health & Human Services has facilitated the move, the health official said in an email, asking not to be named due to the sensitivity of the case.
AstraZeneca, whose vaccine is not approved in the United States, said it will work with President Joe Biden’s government to find an alternative location to manufacture its vaccine.
White House officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The development, first reported by the New York Times, is further hampering AstraZeneca’s efforts in the United States. The government has criticized the drug company for using outdated data in the results of its vaccine research. Later it revised its study.
Workers at the Emergent BioSolutions plant pooled ingredients for the J&J and AstraZeneca vaccines several weeks ago, the Times said earlier this week. J&J said at the time that the destroyed batch had not yet progressed to the fill-and-finish phase.
The government’s decision to let the facility make only the single-dose J&J vaccine is intended to avoid future confusion, the Times said, citing two senior federal health officials.
The top infectious disease doctor in the US told Reuters on Thursday that the country may not need the AstraZeneca vaccine, even if it gets approval.
The United States has entered into loan agreements to send Mexico and Canada approximately 4 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine made at their US facility.
Reporting by Shubham Kalia and Vishal Vivek in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Steve Holland in Washington; Edited by David Gregorio and William Mallard