According to the newspaper, the US Health and Human Services Department said on Saturday that the Emergent BioSolutions facility will now only be manufacturing the Johnson & Johnson vaccine to avoid future mix-ups.
The department also asked Johnson & Johnson to have a special team oversee all aspects of manufacturing. The company said it was "assuming full responsibility," according to The New York Times.
Earlier this week, Emergent BioSolutions said in a statement that it was acknowledging that it botched a batch of vaccines but it remained confident in its ability to meet the US government safety requirements and standards.
On Wednesday, Johnson & Johnson said that a faulty batch of coronavirus vaccines had been produced at the Emergent BioSolutions manufacturing plant in East Baltimore. According to The New York Times, ingredients of two coronavirus vaccines were accidentally mixed up by Emergent employees several weeks ago, and up to 15 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine were thus ruined.
Johnson & Johnson said its vaccine supply plans were not going to be affected.
Johnson & Johnson’s single-shot coronavirus vaccine was approved for emergency use in the US at the end of February, becoming the third vaccine to be authorized by the US Food and Drug Administration (in addition to the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines).