EMA Approves Additional Production Site for Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 Vaccine

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The European Medicines Agency (EMA) announced on Thursday the approval of another new manufacturing site for Johnson & Johnson's vaccine against COVID-19, as well as increasing the production of the vaccines from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna.

"EMA’s human medicines committee (CHMP) has approved an additional manufacturing site for the production of COVID-19 Vaccine Janssen, developed by Janssen-Cilag International NV. The site, located in Marcy-l'Étoile, France, and operated by Sanofi Pasteur, will manufacture finished product," the agency said in a statement.

Meanwhile, the EMA allowed for boosting manufacturing of the Moderna vaccine at a Spanish plant operated by ROVI Contract Manufacturing, saying it will include "a 50% scale-up of the batch size of the finished product and a second fill-and-finish line," resulting in the production of roughly 25 million additional doses every month.

"An increase in production of the active substance of Comirnaty, the COVID-19 vaccine from BioNTech/Pfizer, at the manufacturing site operated by Wyeth BioPharma Division of Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, located in Andover, MA, USA, was also approved by the Committee," the statement added.

The EMA has so far authorized the vaccines by Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson for use in the European Union.

Four vaccines are undergoing rolling review at the EMA at the moment – Sputnik V (Russia), Vero Cell (China), Vidprevtyn, and VLA2001 (France).