The White House says it is working to accelerate early production of the J&J COVID-19 vaccine

(Reuters) – The Biden administration is exploring all options to increase manufacturing of Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine, which is under regulatory review, and said on Friday that currently projected early dose levels were lower than expected.

The White House has invoked the Defense Production Act to help Pfizer Inc. increase COVID-19 vaccine production and that “all options” were on the table to produce more Johnson & Johnson vaccine should it be authorized.

It will also use the powers of war to increase testing of COVID-19 at home and make more surgical gloves in the United States, officials said in a briefing Friday.

“As with other vaccines, we haven’t found that the level of manufacturing allows us to have as many vaccines as we think we need to get out the door,” said Andy Slavitt, a senior White House COVID-19 advisor. response team, referring to the J&J vaccine.

J&J applied for U.S. emergency use authorization on Thursday. He hopes to have some vaccine ready to be distributed as soon as it is authorized, but has not said how much.

Emerging Biosolutions chief executive Robert Kramer said in an interview Friday that the company currently manufactures bulk pharmaceuticals for J&J “on a large scale.” Emergent only produces massive vaccines, which are then filled into syringes or jars and packaged to be shipped by another contractor.

Kramer said they were on track to make enough product for hundreds of millions of doses a year. It is still unclear what other supply bottle necks may be. Kramer said his company had already benefited from the Defense Production Act under the Trump administration, which helped the company get to the point where it is ready.

Under the authority of the Defense Production Act, the government will give priority ratings to two important components for Pfizer’s vaccine production: filling pumps and tangential flow filtration units, officials said.

“We told you that when we learned that there was a bottleneck about the necessary equipment, supplies or technology related to the supply of vaccines, we would step in and help, and we were doing that,” said Tim Manning, chain coordinator. country supply Answer COVID-19.

The government will also invoke its powers under the Defense Production Act to increase testing of COVID-19 at home with six unnamed manufacturers, with the goal of producing 61 million tests by the summer, Manning said.

It will also invoke its powers to increase the national 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 a billion gloves a month.

Officials have said that once the J & J vaccine is authorized, that would mean millions more doses would be available to states. The vaccine is unique, unlike the two-dose vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna Inc., and can be stored in the refrigerator.

Officials have hoped that the ease of administering the J&J vaccine will mean that states will be able to immunize residents more quickly.