Japan finds "black substance" in Moderna vaccine, put holds on shots

Japan has put on hold a batch of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine after a pharmacist saw what he claims to be black particles in one vial of the vaccine.

According to officials, the pharmacist found the black particles while checking for foreign substances before the vaccine’s use in Kanagawa Prefecture.

It comes less than a week after Japan suspended the use of about 1.63 million Moderna doses due to contamination.

More than 3,000 people had already received shots from the batch. The rest of the batch has now been put on hold.

Local media reports say there has been no evidence so far of any health hazards caused by the potentially contaminated vaccine.

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Takeda Pharmaceutical, which sells and distributes the vaccine in Japan, had just last week put three batches of the vaccine on hold after "foreign materials" were found in some doses of a batch of roughly 560,000 vials.

Spanish pharmaceutical firm Rovi, which bottles the vaccine, said in a statement that a manufacturing line in Spain could be the cause of the issue.

It added that it was conducting an investigation.

Japan is battling a surge in Covid cases while it hosts the Paralympic Games.

Local media reports say that Japan’s vaccination roll-out has been relatively slow, with just over 40% of Japanese people fully vaccinated and around 50% having received one dose.

(With inputs from agencies)