The Japanese Health Ministry said on Thursday it had halted the use of 1.63 million Moderna doses from three lots produced at ROVI’s manufacturing site in Spain.
According to Japan's health ministry, two men in their 30s died recently within days of receiving their second Moderna doses. Each had a jab from one of three manufacturing lots suspended on Thursday, Sputnik reported.
However, the cause of the deaths is still being investigated.
Japan froze the use of 1.63 million Moderna doses delivered to 863 vaccination centers nationwide following reports of contaminants in some vials.
Spain's ROVI pharmaceutical firm, which is manufacturing Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine, opened an investigation on Thursday to determine how vials of the vaccine sent to Japan were contaminated with foreign particles.
US vaccine maker Moderna is reportedly conducting a parallel investigation.
Japan's NHK broadcaster cited the ministry as saying that the contaminants were magnetic and appeared to be metallic particles. No safety issues linked to the three lots have been observed.
RHM/PR