Almost 400M COVID-19 Vaccine Doses Lost Due To Emergent's Baltimore Plant Fiasco - AstraZeneca (NYSE:AZN)

According to a recent report from the US House select subcommittee on the coronavirus crisis, Emergent Biosolutions Inc (NYSE:EBS) might have destroyed nearly 400 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines after failing to meet quality standards.
Initially, 75 million - 85 million doses of drug substance were said to be destroyed after contamination.
"Despite major red flags at its vaccine manufacturing facility, Emergent's executives swept these problems under the rug and continued to rake in taxpayer dollars," Rep. Carolyn Maloney said.
Emergent hid the evidence, the report alleges, by removing quality-assurance hold tags from Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) COVID-19 shot batches that indicated that the containers had quality issues.
Related: Millions Of JNJ COVID-19 Shots Sit Idle At Emergent's Baltimore Plant: Reuters.
The report also says that Emergent entered contracts with the two companies despite knowing that technical operations were not up to snuff for at least a few years.
The CDMO maintains that it never knowingly misled the FDA or any partners involved in the manufacturing process.
The report says that President Donald Trump's administration was aware of deficiencies highlighted at the Bayview site when it received $628 million in funding in May 2020.
AstraZeneca Plc (NASDAQ:AZN) personnel raised concerns to Emergent in July of 2020.
The report also found that inexperienced staff and the high turnover led to vaccine contamination.
Price Action: EBS shares are down 8.03% at $27.96 on Wednesday.
Image by torstensimon from Pixabay

AZNAstraZeneca PLC

$165.030.32%

Overview

AZNCFAstraZeneca PLC

$187.102.15%

EBSEmergent BioSolutions Inc

$7.520.27%

JNJJohnson & Johnson

$254.820.38%

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