BALTIMORE — The tally of wasted COVID-19 vaccine continues to climb at the troubled Emergent BioSolutions plant in East Baltimore and now exceeds a half billion doses, according to findings a congressional panel released Thursday on the manufacturer once central to the U.S. coronavirus pandemic response.
The new total includes an additional 135 million doses dumped over quality deficiencies that were discovered after operators of the Bayview facility had pledged to address problems identified by federal regulators and had resumed manufacturing.
“It is deeply disappointing that Emergent, after collecting millions in taxpayer dollars and having many months to fix the serious manufacturing problems plaguing their Baltimore facility, has yet to competently perform the essential task they committed to perform,” said Rep. James E. Clyburn, the chairman of the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, which has been probing the plant’s issue for more than a year.
