According to an investigation, this is not the first time that the Emergent factory has had to sacrifice many doses of vaccine due to an error.
Last week we reported on an incredible mistake at a Baltimore plant that resulted in the loss of 15 million doses of Johnson & Johnson vaccine. Information revealed by the New York Times which is now pushing its investigation and highlights very limited methods. Something to worry about for other doses of vaccine.
“Emergent” is a company specializing in the production of vaccines. In its factory in Baltimore, it manufactures vaccines for Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca: the technologies are similar, via a viral vector which once in our body will attack the virus. In February, employees unknowingly infected the Johnson & Johnson viral vector with that of AstraZeneca.
The error was made during one of the last checks before marketing: Johnson & Johnson samples a batch of 13 to 15 million doses of vaccine to check its purity. What the New York daily reveals more today is that between October and January, Emergent would have thrown five batches of AstraZeneca vaccines (between 10 and 15 million doses) because of another suspicion of contamination .
Multiple mistakes in recent months
In addition, in November, production of a batch of Johnson & Johnson vaccines was also discontinued: workers allegedly “plugged in” the wrong gas line and accidentally “choked” the vaccine virus cells. What is worrying are the multiple breaches and the chain of errors in recent months.