Company may be part of the reason why Johnson & Johnson vaccines are delayed
A pharmaceutical contractor under scrutiny for its ties to former government officials could be one of the bottlenecks holding up the production of millions of Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines.
Emergent BioSolutions, the U.S. company making “drug substance,” the active ingredient in the vaccines, is still awaiting regulatory authorization, according to a company official familiar with the process. Emergent-made doses were not included in the paperwork Johnson & Johnson submitted to the Food and Drug Administration. That means that the material Emergent makes would not be available to be used for vaccines that can be administered in the United States now.
Johnson & Johnson is due to deliver 20 million doses by the end of March, but just 4.7 million had been delivered as of March 25, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Continue reading.