Emergent announced late Sunday that the government’s health agency had poured $ 23 million into new manufacturing equipment at the Bayview, Maryland plant that manufactured the contaminated doses. “In addition, Emergent expects to join the U.S. government and AstraZeneca in a mutually agreed upon move to produce AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 bulk drug vaccine,” the company said in a statement.
AstraZeneca did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The official has already produced about 90 million doses that are ready or almost ready for US use. AstraZeneca has not yet submitted an emergency permit allowing the administration of doses in the United States, but said it could be done by mid-April. Meanwhile, its vaccines are already being used in dozens of other countries.
It is possible that the supply for the lands could be interrupted by the shutdown of Emergent’s facilities. While the company used Emergent for US doses, it relied on another drug plant in Baltimore run by Catalent to manufacture vaccines for Europe, Japan and an international purchasing consortium known as the COVAX facility, the official said. . It is unclear whether the Catalent plant can handle the extra work.
AstraZeneca last summer signed an agreement with the Trump administration to deliver 300 million doses of vaccine. If it obtains U.S. approval, it will become the fourth vaccine manufacturer to contribute to U.S. supplies. Officials say they expect to reach the goal of vaccinating most Americans this summer without the doses of AstraZeneca, but the company’s shots could still be important in using booster doses against emerging variants of the virus.