The Food and Drug Administration will allow a plant that has been filling vials with Johnson & Johnson's coronavirus vaccines to begin shipping them across the country. Johnson & Johnson partnered with Catalent to boost production so it could meet its goal of delivering 20 million doses of the single-shot vaccine by the end of March.
The plant, which is located in Bloomington, Indiana, has been upgraded with a dedicated line to fill vials with the Johnson & Johnson's vaccine. The company also hired an additional 300 people who work around the clock producing the vaccine. The company has been producing vaccines for a few months but had to wait for FDA approval before they could begin shipping them out.
Catalent did not say how many vaccines they currently have on hand or how many they will be producing.
The news comes as the Biden administration is worried that Johnson & Johnson won't be able to deliver 20 million doses by the end of the month. Johnson & Johnson had four million doses and hand and ready to ship when the vaccine was granted an emergency use authorization from the FDA. Since then, the pharmaceutical company has shipped out just 1.2 million doses. The company plans to distribute another four million vaccines this week. In order to reach its goal, Johnson & Johnson will need to distribute 10.8 million doses next week.
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