J&J said it was “assuming 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 move comes after employees at the Baltimore facility accidentally mixed up the ingredients from the two vaccines, forcing regulators to delay approval of the plant’s output.
The HHS Department requested that J&J assure full responsibility for vaccine production at the plant and the Biden Administration will be working with AstraZeneca, says the company, to find an alternative site for its vaccine production, per Bloomberg.
In an email to CNN, officials with Emergent BioSolutions Inc. said: “Johnson & Johnson is assuming full responsibility regarding the manufacturing of drug substance for its COVID-19 vaccine at its Bayview facility.
“Specifically, the Company is adding dedicated leaders for operations and quality, and significantly increasing the number of manufacturing, quality, and technical operations personnel to work with the Company specialists already at Emergent.”
J&J met its target to supply 20 million doses of its vaccine to the US by the end of March and says it is on target to provide 100 million doses by the end of May.
