Fosun Pharma and BioNTech have reaffirmed that there is no evidence indicating that the batch of mRNA vaccines that had been delivered to Macau poses a health risk and reassured residents who have been inoculated with the German vaccine that they do not need to worry, the Macau government’s Novel Coronavirus Response and Coordination Centre has announced.
A statement by the centre on Saturday pledged that the Macau Health Bureau (SSM) will maintain close communication with the BioNTech jab supplier with the aim of resuming its BioNTech inoculations as soon as possible.
The Macau and Hong Kong governments suspended administering BioNTech vaccines due to “packaging defects” on Wednesday last week.
Fosun Pharma informed the Hong Kong and Macau governments on Wednesday last week that “packaging defects” were detected in the vial caps of the BioNTech mRNA vaccines (validity period until June 2021) in Lot No. 210102. BioNTech and Fosun Pharma had launched an investigation into the cause of the problem, requesting the Hong Kong and Macau governments to immediately suspend inoculations with BioNTech jabs.
Two batches of BioNTech vaccines were delivered to Hong Kong from Germany, Lot No. 210102 and Lot No. 210104. All the BioNTech jabs delivered to Macau from Germany via Hong Kong are part of Lot No. 210102. Despite the fact that the jabs in Lot No. 210104 are not affected by the “packaging defects”, inoculations with all BioNTech jabs were suspended in Hong Kong.
According to Saturday’s statement, Fosun Pharma told the Macau Health Bureau earlier that day that according to the latest findings of the investigation jointly carried out by Fosun Pharma and BioNTech, “no significant systemic factor that could cause the packaging defects during the vaccine product’s packaging process has been identified”.
Saturday’s statement said that the findings of the investigation did not rule out the possibility that the packaging defects were caused by “environmental factors in the course of the jabs’ long-distance transport”.
According to the statement, Fosun Pharma and BioNTech aim to complete the investigation within one week, which will verify whether the batch of BioNTech mRNA vaccines that is currently in Macau can continue to be used safely.
