The White House says the U.S. will still have enough vaccines for all Americans by the end of next month, despite problems with a single group of “drug products” leading to the loss of 15 million doses of Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine.
“We are still on track to get the amount of doses we need to vaccinate all adult Americans by the end of May,” Psaki said Monday. “It was not even a facility approved by the FDA.”
She went on to say that the US “does not bet on these doses”, and that Johnson & Johnson “assured us that we will get the 24 million doses they promised in April.”
Under pressure from CNN’s Kaitlan Collins over whether the issues could contribute to the hesitation of vaccines in the United States, Psaki replied, “We have not seen it.”
“That’s why the FDA approval process is in place,” she said. ‘In many ways, it was the process of working because the FDA did not approve the website. Steps have been taken to address these issues, and we also have a series of contingency plans. ”
‘If we’re all talking here about’ why did we order so many doses, why are we at the point where we share doses with every country around the world? ‘Part of it is because we have to plan for things to come. Things like this come up, ”she said.
“We need to plan for a series of contingencies,” Psaki added. “This is one of the many reasons why we will still be in a place where there are enough vaccines for adult Americans by May May.”
Some backgrounds: As previously reported, a source familiar with the Johnson & Johnson manufacturing process told CNN on Saturday that the loss was not a major setback.
Johnson & Johnson said a single range of “drug products” did not meet quality control and was discarded. The company’s vaccine, currently distributed in the US, is manufactured in a factory in the Netherlands, but Emergent BioSolutions, a contract manufacturer, manufactured doses in a factory in Baltimore. The factory was awaiting approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration when the pollution problem was reported.
‘Once the plant is up and running again, the way this particular vaccine is made in these large quantities is not a major setback. “It should be a setback in just a few weeks,” the source told CNN.
Emergent also makes vaccine for AstraZeneca, of which the vaccine has not yet been approved in the USA. Like Johnson & Johnson, the AstraZeneca vaccine uses a virus to carry genetic material – a so-called viral vector.
Emergent and Johnson & Johnson said quality control measures caught the problem. None of the vaccines made in the plant were sent to be bottled or distributed, and officials stressed that no one was endangered due to the contamination.
According to a source, the company has been helping to manufacture Covid-19 vaccines for Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca for months, according to a source familiar with the situation.
In addition to the 15 million doses that had to be discarded, Emergent successfully produced 115 million doses of Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine, which is in various stages of the supply chain.
The source added that it was ‘not uncommon’ for the pharmaceutical industry to throw away quantities of vaccine, and the fact that Emergent and J&J detected the contamination before any of the doses involved were sent showed the system was working.