Japan has suspended the use of 1.63 million doses of the Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine after what Rovi has reported a drug contamination. The Spanish pharmaceutical company suffers on the stock market with falls of around 5%, the largest in the continuous market, after knowing the information.
Both Japan and Moderna and Rovi assured that no safety or efficacy problems had been detected and that the suspension was only a precaution. But the move prompted several Japanese companies to cancel the vaccination of workers scheduled for Thursday.
“Moderna confirms that it has been notified of cases of particles in its Covid-19 vaccine vials,” Moderna explained in a statement. “The company is investigating the reports and remains committed to working quickly with its partner, Japanese pharmaceutical company Takeda, and with regulatory bodies to solve this problem, “he added.
A Health Ministry official said Takeda found out on August 16 and informed the government of the problem on Wednesday. The delay in the reaction was due to Takeda needing time to gather information on which roads were affected and where they were located in the country, the official said.
Moderna said the contamination could be due to a problem from manufacturing in one of the production lines of its plant in Spain. The suspension is a further setback for the company, whose partners experienced production delays last month that cut off supplies to some countries, including South Korea. It was not clear if the problem affected supplies to other countries.
Spain’s Rovi, which packages or “fills and finishes” Moderna vaccines for markets other than the United States, is investigating possible contamination of Moderna doses but indicates that the problem appears to be limited to a few batches destined for Japan.
For its part, Japan’s Defense Ministry, which runs a mass vaccination center in Osaka, said that the vaccines from the batch in question, which contains 565,400 doses, were used in western prefecture between August 6 and 20.
Moderna said that “out of excess of caution” it had put the lot in question and two adjacent lots on the market. Takeda said it conducted an emergency screening after particulate matter was found in a batch of vaccine vials at an inoculation center.
Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said Thursday that the country’s inoculation plan would be little affected by the problem. A day earlier, he said that around 60% of the population will be fully vaccinated by the end of September and that the country had enough vaccines to provide booster doses should such a decision be made.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato said there had been no reported cases of health problems related to the administration of contaminated vaccines. Japan Airlines said Thursday that it had canceled some Covid-19 vaccines for its employees.
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