Johnson & Johnson faces dumping as many 60 million doses of its Covid-19 vaccine after the Food and Drug Administration decided they might have been contaminated at the Emergent BioSolutions plant where they were made, the New York Times reported on Friday.
In afternoon trading, shares of Johnson & Johnson (ticker: JNJ) were down 1.4%, to $164.75, and Emergent (EBS) shares were down 2.7%, to $63.71.
The FDA will let Johnson & Johnson distribute 10 million doses in U.S. and other countries with a warning about quality-control problems at the Emergent plant during manufacturing, the Times reported. In a statement on Friday, the agency said it is authorizing two batches of the vaccine but has determined that other batches “aren’t suitable for use.”
“Additional batches are still under review and the agency will keep the public informed as those reviews are completed,” the FDA said.