US stops AstraZeneca vaccine production at Baltimore plant — NY Times

FILE PHOTO: A vial with the AstraZeneca’s coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine is pictured in Berlin, Germany, March 16, 2021. REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke/File Photo

U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration on Saturday stopped a Baltimore manufacturing plant that ruined 15 million doses of Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine from making another vaccine developed by AstraZeneca, the New York Times reported on Saturday.

The administration has put Johnson & Johnson in charge of the troubled manufacturing plant, the report said.

The U.S. Health and Human Services’ extraordinary step will render the Emergent BioSolutions facility solely devoted to making the Johnson & Johnson single-dose vaccine, and is meant to avoid future mix-ups, according to the report, which cites two senior federal health officials.

Johnson & Johnson said it was “assuming full responsibility,” confirming the changes, the report added.