GAO: COVID-19 vaccine production falls short of January 2021 goal

According to a recent status report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the United States did not meet its Operation Warp Speed (OWS) goal to produce 300 million COVID-19 vaccine doses by January 2021. Companies with current emergency use authorizations (EUAs) for vaccines are contracted under the program to release a combined 200 million doses of their vaccines by the end of March 2021 but had released just 63.7 million doses (31.8%) as of January 31. The GAO report points to a range of issues contributing to the failure to meet the goal, including bottlenecks in manufacturing capacity, supply chain problems, and lack of an available workforce to manage the manufacturing process. But the report notes that companies have been working with the OWS to increase production capacity, despite a shortage of facilities for manufacturing the vaccines. Manufacturing supply chains have also been disrupted as a result of the pandemic, with facilities experiencing a range of challenges, including difficulty acquiring reagents and chemicals, as well as shipping delays of weeks or months for materials that usually would be delivered in a much shorter period of time. The report also points to challenges in hiring and training specialized personnel to manage vaccine manufacturing processes. GAO noted technology readiness levels for each vaccine candidate, suggesting “COVID-19 vaccine development under OWS generally followed traditional practices, with some adaptations.”