Moderna Vaccine Shipped to Japan Contained Stainless Steel

Tokyo, Sept. 1 (Jiji Press)--Part of Moderna Inc.'s COVID-19 vaccine shipped to Japan contained fragments of stainless steel mixed in accidentally during its production in Spain, the health ministry said Wednesday. The ministry disclosed the results of investigations by the U.S. biotechnology company and others into the origin of the foreign matter found recently in Moderna vaccine vials at vaccination centers in Japan. The discovery led the ministry to suspend the use of the batch that contained the vials, along with two other batches made in the same production line in the same period. Given that stainless steel is used in medical products such as artificial heart valves, the fragments will not cause excessive health or safety risks, the ministry said, adding that the substance will not affect the efficacy of the vaccine significantly. The total amounts of the three batches reach 1.63 million doses, of which slightly over 500,000 doses have already been administered, the ministry has said. Spain's Rovi Pharma Industrial Services SA, which made the three batches, has found a problem in which metal parts of its production equipment hit against each other during the process of putting lids on vials, according to the ministry and Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. <4502>, the distributor of the vaccine in Japan. Stainless steel fragments are likely to have entered vials because of the problem, the ministry and Takeda said. In response to the findings, Takeda decided to recall the three batches, which were distributed to 901 vaccination venues across Japan. Takeda said that no other batches have been affected by the problem. So far, there has been no report of clear health damage from vaccine from any of the three batches. But two men in their 30s are known to have died days after receiving their second shots of vaccine from one of the two batches suspended together with the one from which the foreign matter was found. The substance had been found at eight venues in Tokyo, Saitama, Ibaraki, Aichi and Gifu prefectures by Thursday in a batch whose lot number is 3004667. The other two batches have lot numbers 3004734 and 3004956. END