Pharmaceutical company Janssen cannot guarantee that it can supply all the corona vaccines ordered by the European Union in the second quarter. The pharmaceutical company from Leiden tells the NOS that due to production problems it is “uncertain” whether all 55 million doses will be delivered before the end of June.
The 55 million order includes three million vaccines for the Netherlands. Some 313,000 of these have already been delivered in recent weeks. The RIVM expects 852,000 additional doses of the vaccine over the next four weeks, one of which will be required. The chance that the other 1.8 million doses will arrive on time seems very small, sources tell the NOS.
Last week, a spokesman for Janssen’s parent company, the American Johnson & Johnson, told Reuters news agency that the intention is to have the ordered 55 million doses delivered to the EU by the end of June. That is now different.
The effect of fewer Janssen vaccines for the vaccination campaign against covid-19 in the Netherlands may be better than expected. Even with ‘only’ 1.2 million Janssen vaccines instead of 3 million, RIVM expects to have received 17.4 million doses from Pfizer / BioNtech, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Janssen by the end of June. That should be nearly enough to give all over-18s who want a vaccine at least one shot by early July.
Millions of vaccines on hold
According to a spokesman for Janssen in the Netherlands, the problems are related to production in the United States. She does not want to elaborate on this.
A director of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) admitted yesterday at the Flemish VRT some more explanation. He said potential quality issues have been discovered with a batch of vaccines produced in the United States but destined for Europe. An investigation is underway, leaving millions of vaccines already produced for the time being on hold stand.
The Dutch Ministry of Health says it is in talks with Janssen about the deliveries, but has not yet received a message about a reduced delivery. The ministry says the ordered three million vaccines are still expected in the Netherlands by the end of June.
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