Benzinga | Apr 8, 2021 02:59PM EDT

US Allocates Significantly Lower Number Of J&J Vaccines To States For Next Week: Reuters

* The U.S. government will allot around 85% less Johnson & Johnson's (NYSE: JNJ) COVID-19 vaccines to states next week, data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) showed.

* According to Reuters, about 785,500 J&J doses will be allocated, compared to 4.95 million doses this week.

* Last week, the New York Times reported that workers at an Emergent BioSolutions facility in Baltimore producing both AstraZeneca Plc (NASDAQ: AZN) and J&J doses had mixed-up ingredients for the two vaccines, spoiling 15 million J&J doses.

* However, the Baltimore facility has not yet been authorized by the FDA. A federal health official told Reuters last week that none of the plant's vaccine doses have been used in the vaccination campaigns so far.

* According to the CDC data, California is the primary recipient of the J&J vaccine, followed by Texas and Florida.

* California's vaccine allocation is down by about 88%, with the state set to receive 67,600 doses next week.

* A California health official said that the number would go down further in the week starting April 18, with only 22,400 doses of the J&J vaccine allocated to the state.

* J&J has reiterated that it expected to deliver 100 million doses to the U.S. government by the end of May.

* Price Action: JNJ shares are down 0.26% at $163.19 during the market trading session on the last check Thursday.