By Hanna Park
(WASHINGTON) AstraZeneca is negotiating to change the production of its COVID-19 vaccine to a Maryland-based factory operated by Catalent, Inc., The New York Times reported.
Ongoing talks to retrofit AstraZeneca’s production line comes as embattled drug maker Emergent BioSolutions was forced to stop manufacturing the company’s vaccine at a plant in Baltimore more than six weeks ago.
Last May, AstraZeneca was provided $1.2 billion to produce 300 million doses of the vaccine.
The government was negotiating AstraZeneca’s contract to shift production of the vaccine from Emergent to Catalent, a federal official told the Times on the condition of anonymity.
Catalent currently produces AstraZeneca’s vaccine for export in Harmans, Md., south of Baltimore.
“We can confirm we are working with Catalent but have not disclosed specific details on supply,” said Holly Campbell, a spokeswoman for AstraZeneca, told the Times.
The Biden administration removed AstraZeneca from the Emergent plant after a manufacturing mishap occurred while Johnson & Johnson’s one-dose coronavirus vaccine was produced at the site, which contaminated up to 15 million doses.
The Food and Drug Administration stopped the vaccine production at the plant while it investigated the facility.
AstraZeneca’s two-dose vaccine has not yet been authorized in the U.S. Still, the Biden administration has been counting on tens of millions of its doses to fulfill the nation’s promise as a global vaccine supplier.