Emergent BioSolutions discarded ingredients for 400 million COVID-19 vaccines, probe finds

Emergent BioSolutions was forced to discard up to 400 million coronavirus vaccine doses due to the contamination of ingredients, according to a congressional report.

Between March 2020 and February 2022, vaccine-maker Emergent BioSolutions was forced to discard or destroy up to 400 million coronavirus vaccine doses due to the contamination of ingredients, according to a congressional report published Tuesday -- a figure that reflects more than five times what was previously disclosed by the beleaguered firm.

Congressional investigators probing the Maryland-based biotech company found that Emergent executives had privately raised urgent quality-control concerns even before the company began manufacturing the vaccines' key ingredient -- despite publicly expressing confidence in their ability to deliver on their multimillion-dollar government contract.

Meanwhile, according to the report, Emergent lab workers intentionally sought to mislead government inspectors about issues at its Bayview, Maryland, plant, and repeatedly "rebuffed" efforts by AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson to inspect their facilities.

"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," House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., said of the report, which determined that the company's "manufacturing failures and deceptive tactics" led to the largescale waste of ingredients that could have helped make millions of vaccine doses.