Johnson & Johnson has temporarily halted production of its COVID-19 vaccine at a key plant in the Netherlands, according to a report by the New York Times. 

The suspension at the manufacturing hub in Leiden – the only one making usable doses for the firm – happened quietly during the end of last year, sources told the publication. It is expected to last only a ‘few months’, but will cut short the COVID vaccine supply by a few hundred million doses. 

Instead, the drugmaker has diverted its resources to the production of another vaccine for a different virus. 

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J&J has neither denied nor confirmed the report. The US-based healthcare company, however, has said that it will continue to meet its delivery commitments. 

“We continue to fulfil our contractual obligations in relation to the Covax facility and the African Union,” the company spokesperson said, assuring that it has “millions of doses of our COVID-19 vaccine in inventory”.

“We strive to improve human health and have worked tirelessly to forge partnerships and build a global manufacturing network across four continents to produce our COVID-19 vaccine. In addition, we expanded the capacity of our facility in Leiden in 2021, and the site continues to play a role in our vaccine manufacturing in 2022,” the spokesperson told The Hill.

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While the healthcare company is working towards setting up additional plants, production is only expected to begin until late spring. 

Ayoade Alakija, co-head of the African Union’s vaccine delivery program, told the NYT this is not the time to be switching production lines “when the lives of people across the developing world hang in the balance”.