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According to The New York Times, Johnson & Johnson has stopped production of its current vaccine, potentially to create a more profitable version aimed at other viruses.
With production on hold at its Dutch facility in the city of Leiden, hundreds of millions of doses could be taken out of circulation, though it is unclear how vaccine supplies in the US have been affected.
Ayoade Alakija, a co-head of the African Union’s vaccine-delivery program, told the Times that switching up production could endanger the vaccination effort.
“This is not the time to be switching production lines of anything, when the lives of people across the developing world hang in the balance,” she said.
The Johnson & Johnson vaccine has been controversial since its initial rollout, including dozens of cases of blood clotting in patients who took the one-dose shot, and its efficacy has been called into question compared to the two-dose Moderna and Pfizer vaccines.
However, the single-dose shot proved popular, more convenient, and avoided the requirement of ultra-cold storage, which makes shipments of the other vaccines more difficult.
In a statement, Johnson & Johnson announced that its manufacturing sites would continue to produce other products and “life-changing medicine.”
“We strive to improve human health and have worked tirelessly to forge partnerships and build a global manufacturing network across four continents to produce our COVID-19 vaccine," company officials said. "Our manufacturing sites produce multiple products as we have an obligation to supply life-changing medicines to patients around the world and bring forward our innovative pipeline of new medicines and vaccines.
“We manage our production planning accordingly and are currently supplying from our extensive global network based on the demand for our vaccine and the needs of our patients and customers."
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