(Reuters) – The Biden administration is exploring all options for increasing the manufacture of COVID-19 vaccine at Johnson & Johnson, which is under regulatory review, and said Friday that early dose levels were not present lower than expected.
The White House has passed a Defense Production Act to help Pfizer Inc ramp up COVID-19 vaccine production and that “all options” were on the table to produce more Johnson & Johnson vaccines if e authorized.
It will also use wartime powers to increase COVID-19 testing at home, and make more surgical gloves in the United States, officials said at a press conference Friday.
“As with other vaccines, we have not found that manufacturing rates allow us to have the vaccine and that we think we need to get out of it. the gate, ”said Andy Slavitt, COVID-19 senior adviser at the White House response team, referring to the J&J vaccine.
J&J filed Thursday for U.S. emergency use approval. Vaccines are expected to be ready for release as soon as they are authorized but the extent has not been stated.
Under the authority of the Defense Production Act, the government will give priority ranking to two key components in Pfizer vaccine production – filling pumps and inclined flow filtration units, officials said.
“We told you when we heard about bottles on equipment, supplies, or technology related to vaccine supply that we would step in and help, and we did just that,” he said. Tim Manning, nationwide supply chain coordinator COVID-19 Response.
The government will also extend its powers under the Defense Production Act to increase COVID-19 testing at home by six, unnamed manufacturers, aiming to issue 61 million tests in the summer , Manning said.
It will also seek its powers to increase the country’s supply of surgical gloves, which are manufactured almost exclusively abroad.
Manning said the government will build factories that make the raw materials for surgical gloves and help build plants in the United States to make the gloves.
By the end of the year, he said, the United States would be able to produce billions of gloves every month.
Officials have said that once the J&J vaccine is authorized, it would mean millions more doses would be available by states. The vaccine is single-dose, as opposed to Pfizer and Moderna Inc two-dose vaccines, and can be stored in a refrigerator.
Officials have hoped that the ease of administering the J&J vaccine will mean that states will be able to give residents vaccines more quickly.
Reporting by Dania Nadeem and Rebecca Spalding in Bengaluru, Editing by Peter Henderson and Steve Orlofsky