Benzinga | Jul 29, 2021 10:16AM EDT

Emergent BioSolutions Stock Higher As COVID-19 Vaccine Production To Resume At Baltimore Plant

* Emergent BioSolutions Inc (NYSE:EBS) will resume production of Johnson & Johnson's (NYSE:JNJ) COVID-19 vaccine at its troubled Baltimore facility, where operations were stopped in April after millions of doses were found to be contaminated.

* The development comes after J&J last week slashed the 2021 production target of its single-dose vaccine to between 500 million and 600 million doses from its original goal to produce 1 billion shots.

* Emergent Chief Executive Officer Robert Kramer said the resumption follows additional reviews and collaboration with the FDA and manufacturing partners.

* The FDA has so far approved five batches from the Emergent facility since production there was paused, and J&J is working to clear additional doses for use, the drugmaker said last week.

* "We will continue to work toward securing Emergency Use Authorization in the United States for drug substance manufactured at Emergent Bayview as quickly as possible," J&J said in an email.

* The facility could make as many as 120 million doses a month at full capacity, but the finished doses might not be available until this fall, the Wall Street Journal reported.

* Price Action: JNJ stock is down 0.40% at $171.49, and EBS shares are up 1.98% at $66.45 during the market session on the last check Thursday.

* Image by torstensimon from Pixabay