and you know where this is goingA year after a Connecticut company was awarded federal loans and contracts worth up to nearly $1.3 billion to supply an essential syringe for the Covid-19 vaccine rollout, no syringes have been made. The syringe hasn't received even the first of a series of approvals it needs from the federal government before it can be manufactured, and a factory promising 650 jobs remains unbuilt.
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However, a spokesperson for Pfizer, one of the vaccine makers, said that even if ApiJect's syringe got all the necessary approvals from the Food and Drug Administration, it would "not have any impact on our output or process." Moderna didn't respond to a request for comment, and Johnson & Johnson declined to comment.
According to ApiJect, it has “packaged … for testing purposes, two of the vaccines” so the vaccine companies can do the tests required before requesting FDA approval to use the syringe with their products. Neither federal regulators nor any of the vaccine makers would confirm any pending approval requests. ApiJect didn't provide the names.
ApiJect's plant is supposed to be built in an industrial park in North Carolina, but Morgan Weston, a spokesperson for the foundation that runs the park, said that the plant hasn't been built and that "they have not moved their operation in on any level." She referred all other questions to the company.
ApiJect spokesperson Steve Hofman said the land in North Carolina has been cleared and graded for construction. He wouldn't elaborate further about when construction would begin.
