Johnson & Johnson temporarily halts production of COVID-19 vaccine: Report

Johnson & Johnson has temporarily halted production of its COVID-19 vaccine in the only manufacturing plant making usable doses for the pharmaceutical company. According to the New York Times, the company stopped production of the vaccine at its facility in the Netherlands at the end of 2021 and has instead turned its attention to making another vaccine for an unrelated virus. The firm said that the pause is temporary and is expected to last just a month, however, as per the NYT reported that it could reduce Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine by a few hundred million doses. 

As per the media outlet, Johnson & Johnson vaccine from Janssen Pharmaceuticals is considered less effective than Pfizer and Moderna’s shots. But the vaccine is also considered extremely important as it avoids the requirement of shortage in ultra-cold temperatures, which makes shipment of Moderna and Pfizer doses more difficult. Back in October, Johnson & Johnson said that it was committing about 50 million vaccines to 40 countries through COVAX, the vaccine-sharing initiative from the WHO. 

However, Ayoade Alakija, a co-head of the African Union’s COVID-10 vaccine-delivery program, told NYT that switching up production could endanger the vaccination effort. She said that this is not the time to be switching production lines for anything when the lives of people across the developing world hang in balance. 

Millions of J&J doses still in inventory 

Notably, millions of Americans have already received Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine and the company is now estimating even higher sales this year, ranging between $3 billion and $3.5 billion. As per the media outlet, Johnson & Johnson is planning to revive three other manufacturing plants to produce its COVID-19 vaccine, including a facility in Baltimore that was shut down in April following a failure to meet federal guidelines. 

Meanwhile, speaking to The Hill, a spokesperson for Johnson & Johnson said that the millions of doses were in inventory and they were still planning to "fulfil our contractual obligations" related to COVAX and the African Union. “We expanded the capacity of our facility in Leiden in 2021, and the site continues to play a role in our vaccine manufacturing in 2022," the spokesperson said.

(Image: AP/Pixabay)