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Two die in Japan after getting Moderna vaccine jabs suspended over contamination
Japan on Thursday suspended the use of a total of 1.63 million doses of Moderna Inc’s coronavirus vaccines, over a week after the domestic distributor, Takeda Pharmaceutical Co, got reports of contamination in some of the vials.
As many as two people died in Japan after being administered Moderna Inc’s Covid-19 vaccine jabs that were among the batches later suspended over contamination reports, the country’s health ministry said on Saturday.
The deceased people, both men in their 30s, died this month within days of getting inoculated with the second doses of Moderna vaccines, news agency Reuters reported quoting the ministry statement.
Each had received a shot from one of the three manufacturing lots of the coronavirus vaccines that were suspended on Thursday. Their deaths are being probed; the Reuters report added. Both had a fever the day after receiving the second dose and died two days following the fever.
This development comes after Japan on Thursday suspended the use of a total of 1.63 million doses of Moderna Inc’s coronavirus vaccines – over a week after the domestic distributor, Takeda Pharmaceutical Co, got reports of contamination in some of the vials.
However, both Takeda and Moderna insisted on carrying out a “formal investigation” to determine the connection. “At this time, we do not have any evidence that these deaths are caused by the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine,” the companies said in a statement on Saturday.
Following the suspension of vaccine doses, both Moderna and Japan said that no efficacy or safety issue had been spotted and that the move was just a precautionary measure.
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What Moderna said on the contamination reports?
Following the findings by Takeda, Moderna confirmed in a statement of being “notified of cases of particulate matter” being observed in drug product vials of its Covid-19 vaccine.
“The company is investigating the reports and remains committed to working expeditiously with its partner, Takeda, and regulators to address this,” Moderna’s statement added.
According to Reuters, the US biotechnology and pharmaceutical firm said that the contamination could have been due to a “manufacturing issue” in one of the production lines at its contract manufacturing site in Spain.
Rovi, a Spanish pharma company that fills and finishes Moderna Inc’s Covid-19 vaccines for markets apart from the US, said it is probing the “possible contamination” of the doses and that the issue appeared to be present only in a few batches marked for Japan.
What’s the situation in Japan now?
A health ministry official told Reuters that Takeda first identified the contaminated vials on August 16, and reported the issue to the government on Wednesday. The delay, the official added, occurred as the regional distributor needed time to assemble information regarding the affected vials and the locations they were in the country.
The contaminants found in some of the vials are believed to be metallic particles, Japan’s public broadcaster NHK reported, citing health ministry sources.
"There may only be a temporal relationship between vaccination and death," Fumie Sakamoto, the infection control manager at St. Luke's International Hospital in Tokyo told Reuters, stressing on not drawing conclusions as there are “so many things” yet to be unravelled.
Nearly 44 per cent of Japan’s population is fully vaccinated with the country administering more than 124 million jabs. As of August 8, as many as 991 people have lost their lives after receiving Pfizer Inc’s vaccine shots and 11 following the administration of Moderna jabs – however, none of the fatalities have been established to have had connections with the injections.
