Millions of Johnson & Johnson vaccines reportedly ruined by accident

People working at a plant making two different COVID-19 vaccines mistakenly conflated the ingredients, ruining 15 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, according to the New York Times. 

"Workers at a plant in Baltimore manufacturing two coronavirus vaccines accidentally conflated the ingredients several weeks ago, contaminating up to 15 million doses of Johnson & Johnson's vaccine and forcing regulators to delay authorization of the plant's production lines," the outlet reported.

While the Times said that the mishap "has delayed future shipments of Johnson & Johnson doses in the United States while the Food and Drug Administration investigates what occurred," it also said that the mistake "does not affect any Johnson & Johnson doses that are currently being delivered and used nationwide, including the shipments that states are counting on next week. All those doses were produced in the Netherlands, where operations have been fully approved by federal regulators."

In a statement on Wednesday Johnson & Johnson reported that an issue was found with "one batch of drug substance."

"This quality control process identified one batch of drug substance that did not meet quality standards at Emergent Biosolutions, a site not yet authorized to manufacture drug substance for our COVID-19 vaccine. This batch was never advanced to the filling and finishing stages of our manufacturing process," Johnson & Johnson said in a statement.