The Japanese health ministry said on Thursday that it had received reports from several national mass vaccination centers that some of the unused doses of Moderna Inc.’s COVID-19 vaccine had been found. they contained strange materials.
Japanese pharmacist Takeda Pharmaceutical Co., which is in charge of sales and distribution of the Modern vaccine in the country, said it is suspending the use of about 1.63 million doses manufactured on the same production line as a precaution.
The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare and the company said they have not yet seen any report on safety issues on the issue.
The photo of May 24, 2021 shows a syringe that is filled with the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Moderna Inc. in Sendai, northeastern Japan. (Kyodo) == Kyodo
According to the ministry, Moderna promised to initiate an investigation into the matter. Takeda had called for an emergency investigation by the American biotechnology firm, while urging medical institutions and other entities not to use any dose of the vaccine that shows anomaly, even for doses not subject to the suspension.
The Japanese company added that it will make efforts to prevent the suspension from affecting the availability of coronavirus vaccine doses in the country.
Pollution reports came from eight vaccination centers in five prefectures: Aichi, Gifu, Ibaraki, Saitama and Tokyo. Foreign substances were confirmed in 39 vials.
The Ministry of Health said that the 1.63 million doses of Modern vaccine were produced in the same production line at the same time in Spain, and are classified into three numbers: 3004667, 3004734 and 3004956.
As these doses have already been distributed to 863 vaccination centers across the country, the ministry will ask each center not to use them.
Meanwhile, the ministry revealed the number of batches so that interested people can check if they may have received a potentially contaminated shot before suspending the affected vaccine doses.
The problem came to light at a time when Japan is struggling to contain an increase in coronavirus infections, with the government on Wednesday announcing a plan to place eight more prefectures under its COVID-19 state of emergency.
Although vaccination against COVID-19 is being carried out in Japan, the highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus has sent cases reported daily to many places in the country.
According to the government, more than ten million doses have already been used in the country since the Modern vaccine was approved for emergency use in May.
The Japanese government signed a contract with Moderna to receive 50 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine by the end of September. Currently, people 12 and older can get vaccinated.
The Modern vaccine has been administered mainly to mass vaccination centers and commercial offices in the country.
The vaccine, such as that developed by the American pharmaceutical firm Pfizer Inc. and its German partner BioNTech SE, uses a new technology called messenger RNA or mRNA and is administered in two separate doses four weeks apart.
