A rather disturbing discovery. Moderna’s lab had to recall 764,900 doses of coronavirus vaccine. The reason for this precaution? The discovery of a mosquito in a vial at a vaccination center in Malaga, Spain, as reported by the Iberian newspaper El Pais†
The withdrawal was announced last Friday by the Spanish Agency for Medicines and Health Products (AEMPS), who referred to a “foreign body” in a vial, without giving further details about the incident. The batch was produced in a Spanish factory, still according to our colleagues, located in San Sebastián de los Reyes, near Madrid. Here the bottles are filled and packed, while the container is produced in Switzerland.
The vials were subsequently distributed in several countries (Norway, Sweden, Poland, Portugal and thus Spain), all affected by the recall. It would have been shipped in the month of January. It was the Norwegian authorities who disclosed the reason for this recall.
Already an incident on a batch manufactured in Spain in August
“Moderna’s preliminary conclusion is that the foreign body is a small insect, a mosquito, that entered the vial during production and was not detected by control operations,” the Norwegian authorities write.
However, the production company wanted to a joint press release with Moderna, reassurance. “The affected vial was punctured and was not administered (…) The vial was returned for forensic expertise and an investigation was opened (…) No safety issues were reported in people who had received the Moderna vaccine,” they write, recalling that “900 million doses of this vaccine have been vaccinated around the world”.
This is the second incident involving Moderna vaccines packaged in Spain. At the end of August, impurities were discovered in many Moderna’s Covid vaccine† An investigation revealed that the impurities found were stainless steel particles caused by “friction between two metal parts installed in the hood module of the production line as a result of improper assembly”.
Japan had suspended the use of vaccines of three batches, representing more than 1.6 million doses, following reports from several vaccination centers that have detected foreign bodies in vaccine vials. Japan’s Ministry of Health also announced last week the opening of an investigation into the cause of the deaths in August of two men received a dose of vaccine from one of the three suspended batches. According to the two companies’ press release, “there is no evidence” that these two deaths are related to the administration of the vaccine.
