Under a contract awarded by the Trump administration, Emergent BioSolutions (EBS) was paid $27 million a month to make Covid-19 vaccines, but the company already knew of serious quality control problems at its Baltimore plant and failed to take any action, according to documents released by two House committees.
The manufacturing problems forced the company to destroy millions of doses of Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) Covid-19 vaccines earlier this year that were to have been made at the plant. In fact, a J&J audit conducted shortly after the contract was awarded found potential “weaknesses” and a “deficient” strategy for controlling contamination.
Moreover, the Trump administration official who awarded the $650 million contract in May 2020 had previously spent three years as a consultant to the company and was paid $360,000. In all, the official awarded approximately $3 billion in contracts over the past few years to Emergent to make various vaccines, but later acknowledged these were “risky” decisions.
About the Author Reprints
“Developing” indeed, mr ed! Thanks for this ‘breaking news’ in detail.