J&J Temporarily Stops COVID-19 Vaccine Production In Facility In Netherlands - Reports

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 09th February, 2022) The US pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson (J&J) has suspended production of its COVID-19 vaccine in a company's facility in the Netherlands in order to produce another vaccine against a different virus, the New York Times reported on Tuesday.

Johnson and Johnson late last year quietly shut down the only plant making usable batches of the vaccine, the report said, citing people familiar with the decision.

The facility in the Dutch city of Leiden has instead been producing an experimental but potentially more profitable vaccine to protect against an unrelated virus, the report said.

Johnson & Johnson officials said the pause in production is temporary, adding that they expect the Leiden plant to restart production of the vaccine in a few months, the report added.

Officials have tried to minimize the effect of the interruption, saying� the Leiden plant is an important contributor to its production capacity, but the company has millions of COVID-19 vaccine doses in its inventory, according to the report.