US multinational Johnson & Johnson has suspended its Covid-19 vaccine’s production in its plant in the Netherlands late last year to focus on producing a potentially more profitable vaccine for an unrelated virus, The New York Times reported citing sources familiar with the situation.
The shutdown in production in the Dutch city of Leiden plant is reportedly temporary and is expected to start again in March so following plant tests and inspections, doses made there will likely roll out around May or June.
Thanks to the stocks made earlier, it is not yet clear if this will affect the supply of the single-jab Covid vaccine amid the massive push by the federal government and health officials to promote inoculation.
However, people familiar with the issue say the paused production could mean a reduction in output of a few hundred million doses since although other enterprises were supposed to compensate for the retired capacities, some of them have not yet been launched or have not been given permission by the regulatory authorities.
Some organizations that distribute the vaccine worldwide have been expressing concern about the timing since they were unaware of the production pause, with the African Union vaccine distribution’s co-head Dr. Ayoade Alakija pointing out that it’s the worst time to be switching production lines of anything when the lives of people hang in the balance across the developing world.
Meanwhile, the J&J pause came as a surprise to the COVAX consortium too, where the company lagged on deliveries along with Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness.
The poor and developing countries under the program of the World Health Organization’s COVAX facility depend most on Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine that does not require storage at very low temperatures for transportation.
Johnson & Johnson reported $2.39 billion in sales from the Covid jab, which requires only a single shot for the initial inoculation, for 2021 and has forecast an increase to $3.5 billion for 2022.
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