Officials in President Joe Biden’s administration aren’t confident that Johnson & Johnson (J&J) will meet the government’s commitment to deliver 20 million coronavirus vaccines by the end of March, despite optimistic statements from the company.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted emergency use of the J&J coronavirus vaccine nearly a month ago, but the company is now struggling to increase production.
Not only that, but it also faces the issue of slow submission of documents and failing to meet the production timeline set in the company’s contract with the federal government.
Earlier, the U.S. government had signed a $ 450 million contract with J&J for vaccine research and development.
In August, the federal government announced it would pay the company another $ 1 billion for 100 million doses of the potential vaccine, months before it got approval from the FDA.
Under the contract, J&J is scheduled to complete 37 million doses by the end of March and 100 million by the end of June. However, at the moment the company risks not being able to meet its commitment of at least 20 million doses by the end of this month.
With only a few days left to distribute, administration officials began to doubt whether J&J would keep its promise.
