J&J encounters snags in vaccine production, New York Times reports

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The Covid-19 vaccine shows great promise for coming out of the worst of the pandemic. Comes in a single dose, without the extreme vaccine storage requirements of

Pfizer

and

Modern,

it could accelerate global inoculation if it proves effective.

But on Wednesday, The New York Times reported that the company was facing delays in manufacturing the vaccine that saw it falling up to two months behind its original production schedule. The report comes amid growing anticipation of data from Johnson & Johnson’s Phase 3 trial (ticker: JNJ) of the vaccine, expected in the coming weeks.

Speaking at JP Morgan’s health investor conference on Monday, Johnson & Johnson CEO Alex Gorsky said the company aimed to have “hundreds of millions of doses” of the vaccine available within the first half of this year, and “nearly a billion”. by the end of the year.

“We are still on track to achieve these volumes,” Gorsky said. “And again, we’re working day and night to see what else we can do to accelerate this even further in an efficient and safe, compliant and high-quality manner.”

But according to Wednesday’s New York Times report, the company is falling behind on production promises it made to the federal government’s Operation Warp Speed.

Under the agreement, announced in August, the company agreed to deliver 100 million doses of its vaccine to the US government for $ 1 billion. The company did not disclose specific production schedule targets at the time, but the New York Times reported on Wednesday that it was expected to have 12 million doses ready by the end of February.

The Times says the production schedule is now delayed by two months. A Johnson & Johnson official interviewed by The Times did not comment on the production, but an Operation Warp Speed ​​official confirmed a delay to the newspaper. The Times reports that the company is now expected to catch up to its original production schedule by the end of April. By then, he had planned to deliver more than 60 million doses.

“It is premature to go into the details of the procurement of our vaccine candidate, as we do not yet have phase 3 data, nor have we applied for or obtained an authorization for the use of emergency, “the company said in a statement to Barron’s Wednesday. “We remain in active discussions with regulators, including on the approval and validation of our manufacturing processes.” The company said production had started, that it was confident it could meet its commitments to governments and that it expected to make more details available “once some of these steps have been taken.”

Johnson & Johnson shares fell 0.5% early in the session. The stock has gained 7% in the past 12 months.

Write to Josh Nathan-Kazis at [email protected]