Daiichi Sankyo announced in an official statement on 17 May that the Company has been unable to fulfill its obligation to build a manufacturing supply system to supply vaccines for 40 million people in case of an epidemic in the time allotted under the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare’s cell culture vaccine production facility capacity building project.
The effort is a part of the Ministry’s second initiative for H5NI vaccine development and production capacity building grant. After being selected for the project, Daiichi Sankyo had been engaged in preparations to build a program to supply vaccines from August 2011 to March 31, 2019.
The drugmaker said they have been unable to build a scheme capable of supplying vaccines for 40 million people in 6 months by March 31, 2019, the extended time limit for the initiative, and the scheme built is now capable of supplying vaccines for approximately 23 million people.
Daiichi Sankyo apologized for having been unable to build the required infrastructure in the timeframe allotted and will be returning part of the national grant funding and paying a delinquency charge.
“Daiichi Sankyo and Daiichi Sankyo Biotech will make efforts toward maintaining and managing a scheme that will be fully capable of supplying the required quantity of H5NI influenza vaccine necessary for when a pandemic breaks out, and will contribute to the health of people in Japan,” noted the company.
