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Benzinga
Benzinga
Technology
Vandana Singh

Almost 400M COVID-19 Vaccine Doses Lost Due To Emergent's Baltimore Plant Fiasco

  • According to a recent report from the US House select subcommittee on the coronavirus crisis, Emergent Biosolutions Inc (NYSE:EBS) might have destroyed nearly 400 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines after failing to meet quality standards.
  • Initially, 75 million - 85 million doses of drug substance were said to be destroyed after contamination. 
  • "Despite major red flags at its vaccine manufacturing facility, Emergent's executives swept these problems under the rug and continued to rake in taxpayer dollars," Rep. Carolyn Maloney said.
  • Emergent hid the evidence, the report alleges, by removing quality-assurance hold tags from Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) COVID-19 shot batches that indicated that the containers had quality issues.
  • Related: Millions Of JNJ COVID-19 Shots Sit Idle At Emergent's Baltimore Plant: Reuters.
  • The report also says that Emergent entered contracts with the two companies despite knowing that technical operations were not up to snuff for at least a few years.
  • The CDMO maintains that it never knowingly misled the FDA or any partners involved in the manufacturing process. 
  • The report says that President Donald Trump's administration was aware of deficiencies highlighted at the Bayview site when it received $628 million in funding in May 2020. 
  • AstraZeneca Plc (NASDAQ:AZN) personnel raised concerns to Emergent in July of 2020.
  • The report also found that inexperienced staff and the high turnover led to vaccine contamination.
  • Price Action: EBS shares are down 8.03% at $27.96 on Wednesday.
  • Image by torstensimon from Pixabay
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