Johnson & Johnson takes "full duty" of COVID vaccine output at Baltimore plant

Johnson & Johnson revealed late Saturday that it’s “presuming full responsibility” for manufacturing its COVID-19 vaccine at a Baltimore plant where 15 million dosages were destroyed last week.

Of note: AstraZeneca stated Saturday night it remains in “complete cooperation with the U.S. federal government” moving production from the center, run by Emergent BioSolutions, which been producing both vaccines.

Why it matters: The Biden administration took the “amazing” action of intervening as officials were “anxious” the error would “wear down public confidence in the vaccines,” notes the New York City Times, which initially reported the news Saturday.

Driving the news: Both Bloomberg and Reuters report that the Department of Health and Human Solutions ” helped with” the relocation

• J&J said in a declaration that it’s “including devoted leaders for operations and quality, and significantly increasing the variety of production, quality and technical operations workers to deal with the business specialists already at Emergent.”
• AstraZeneca, which has yet to receive FDA approval, said in a declaration Saturday night it “will deal with the U.S. Government to determine an alternative location.”

For the record: The plant has yet to get permission from the Fda for either vaccine and the error is unlikely to affect the U.S. government’s acceleration of the vaccine rollout.

• President Biden is stepping up plans to allow every American adult to have access to a dose by May, however the mix-up highlights how manufacturing problems “might complicate the rollout,” per Bloomberg.

What to see: J&J said in its declaration it “expects to provide almost 100 million single-shot dosages of its COVID-19 vaccine to the U.S. Federal government by the end of Might.”

What they’re saying: Emergent representative Nina DeLorenzo told the Washington Post Saturday that the business had actually been told of AstraZeneca’s relocation strategies and would stop making the vaccine in “the next couple of days.”

• ” We are welcoming additional Johnson & Johnson personnel on-site at Bayview for their technical proficiency and support,” DeLorenzo included.
• Agents for Emergent and the Department of Health and Person Services did not immediately react to Axios’ request for comment.

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