Pfiz­er's trou­ble-prone McPher­son plant — now ramp­ing up vac­cine sup­plies — was cit­ed for con­tin­u­ing vi­o­la­tions in ear­ly 2020

A few days ago, as Pfiz­er CEO Al­bert Bourla com­mit­ted to ramp­ing up pro­duc­tion of its Covid-19 vac­cine, the phar­ma gi­ant point­ed to plans to add its man­u­fac­tur­ing plant in McPher­son, KS to the group of fa­cil­i­ties churn­ing out their mR­NA vac­cine de­vel­oped by BioN­Tech.

But a quick check of Google would show any­one that the plant, ob­tained from Hos­pi­ra in the 2015 buy­out, has reg­u­lar­ly been in hot wa­ter with the FDA over vi­o­la­tions of fed­er­al reg­u­la­to­ry stan­dards. Most sig­nif­i­cant­ly, Pfiz­er earned a harsh warn­ing let­ter from the FDA in 2017 that made it clear the FDA wasn’t hap­py with the re­me­di­a­tion ef­forts be­ing made at the plant in the 2 years since the ac­qui­si­tion.

Unlock this article instantly by becoming a free subscriber.

You’ll get access to free articles each month, plus you can customize what newsletters get delivered to your inbox each week, including breaking news.

SIGN UP LOG IN BECOME A PREMIUM SUBSCRIBER