WASHINGTON — Executives at drug companies Pfizer and Moderna told lawmakers Tuesday they can dramatically increase COVID-19 vaccine deliveries to 140 million more doses over the next five weeks, saying they have smoothed out early hiccups in production that have led to supply shortages.
John Young, Pfizer’s chief business officer, acknowledged the company had experienced some problems “developing a manufacturing process for a vaccine product that we’ve never made before,” including challenges in gathering the necessary raw materials. Pfizer had initially promised to deliver 30 to 40 million doses to the U.S. by the end of 2020 — a mark Pfizer hit only last week.
But Mr. Young pledged that the company is on track to deliver a total of 300 million doses before the end of July.
Moderna, which surpassed a total of 45 million doses two weeks ago, is on track to meet the same commitment of 300 million doses by the end of July, said Stephen Hoge, Moderna’s president.
Such commitments would be a heavy lift, but the executives maintained they are able to meet their commitments without any more production challenges.
Mr. Hoge said Moderna, among other strategies, was working to increase the amount of vaccine in each vial as a way to deliver more doses. But he would not make any promises on when that may happen.
“The obligation is on us to develop the data that the FDA would support for us to move forward with that approach,” Mr. Hoge said. “We don’t want to overcommit.”
Executives with the three other companies — Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca and Novavax Inc. — said their factories stand ready to deliver millions of doses upon federal approval.
John Trizzino, an executive vice president at Novavax Inc., said the company was studying the South African variant in clinical trials. “Adding a new strain to our vaccine is something we have experience with and can do very quickly,” he said.
The promises came as lawmakers on the Oversight and Investigations panel of the House Energy and Commerce Committee scrutinized the slower-than-expected COVID-19 vaccine rollout. The Biden administration and state officials are seeking to smooth out distribution bottlenecks and monitor the emergence of quickly spreading virus variants.
The biggest current problem with the COVID-19 vaccine rollout is demand outstripping supply, said Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo, chair of subcommittee.
“Some of the companies here today are still short of the number of doses they promised to initially deliver,” when they testified before the same subcommittee in July 2020, Ms. DeGette said.
“Many of these companies received significant federal investment to build their manufacturing capacity last year while their clinical trials were still ongoing, so that we would be able to rapidly deliver millions of vaccines as soon as they were authorized,” Ms. DeGette said. “Two vaccines have been authorized and production is ramping up, but there is still insufficient supply to meet current demand.”
Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., chair of the full committee, told the companies “we must acknowledge that there have been setbacks on vaccine production and supply” and that “all options must be on the table.”
The hearing was also an opportunity for lawmakers to air familiar gripes and score some political points.
Blame has been cast about in Washington this year as the vaccine rollout has been slower than expected. Democrats have blamed the Trump administration for failing to invest enough in distribution and communication with states. Republicans, praising the previous president’s vaccine development efforts, have largely blamed state officials, like Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration, for the sluggish rollout.
State officials, meanwhile, have pointed to a lack of federal funding to support vaccine distribution and limited notice of weekly dose allocations from the federal government, among other factors.
President Joe Biden, one month into office, has boosted vaccine distribution to states by about 57%. Last week, the Biden administration said it was doubling the number of doses being sent directly to pharmacies and would begin sending vaccines directly to community health centers.
Last week, the White House announced a mass vaccination site at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia. It will have the capacity to administer 6,000 doses per day and will be up and running in the next two weeks, White House officials said.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has allocated $153 million to Pennsylvania for vaccine distribution. The relief bill in the House includes another $50 billion for FEMA for vaccine efforts.
Congressional Democrats are pushing a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill, teed up for a House vote later this week, which allocates more than $20 billion to increase vaccine distribution, including mobile vaccination units in under-served communities and community vaccination centers.
Officials are eyeing such a federally supported center in the Pittsburgh region, multiple officials have said. Earlier this month, Rep. Conor Lamb, D-Mt. Lebanon, told constituents the limiting factor to opening a large-scale clinic was securing enough supply.
“The question is simply whether they can get enough vaccine shipped here at once to be able to pull something like that off,” Mr. Lamb said, adding, “I’m certainly not going to make any promises.”
The Pennsylvania Department of Health did not respond to a request for comment.
Daniel Moore: dmoore@post-gazette.com, Twitter @PGdanielmoore.
First Published: February 23, 2021, 6:28 p.m.
