U.S. regulators are allowing the release of about 10 million doses of Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine from a troubled Baltimore factory, but many more doses can’t be used and must be thrown out.
The Food and Drug Administration announced Friday that it had determined that two batches could be released from the plant, which is owned by Emergent BioSolutions and has been shuttered for eight weeks. But it said several other batches are not suitable for use and additional batches are still under review.
The agency wouldn’t specify the size of those batches or why they can’t be used, but a person familiar with the decision told The Associated Press that they could have yielded tens of millions of doses and that they possibly were contaminated. Another person familiar with the situation said the doses to be discarded were made about the same time as a vaccine batch equal to about 15 million doses that was contaminated earlier this year and thrown out.
Neither person was authorized to release details about the decision and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.
J&J and Emergent wouldn’t give any details on the size of the batches that are usable, nor those being discarded.