Coronavirus (COVID-19) Update: July 2, 2021

FDA News Release

• For Immediate Release: July 02, 2021

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) continued to take action in the ongoing response to the COVID-19 pandemic:

• Today, the FDA authorized the use, under the emergency use authorization (EUA) for the Janssen COVID-19 vaccine, of an additional batch of vaccine drug substance manufactured at the Emergent facility. To date a total of four batches of Janssen drug substance that were manufactured at the Emergent facility have been authorized. The FDA conducted a thorough review of facility records and the results of quality testing performed by the manufacturer. Based on this review and considering the current COVID-19 public health emergency, the FDA has concluded that these batches are suitable for use. While the FDA is not yet ready to include the Emergent BioSolutions plant in the Janssen EUA as an authorized manufacturing facility, the agency continues to work through issues there with Janssen and Emergent BioSolutions management.
• On June 30, the FDA issued an updated Letter to Health Care Personnel and Facilities stating that the FDA no longer authorizes use of non-NIOSH-approved or decontaminated disposable respirators. The FDA has revoked the Emergency Use Authorizations (EUAs) for non-NIOSH-approved disposable respirators (revocation effective July 6, 2021) and the EUAs for decontamination and bioburden reduction systems (revocation effective June 30, 2021). As of the effective date of the revocations, these devices are no longer authorized for use by health care personnel in health care settings. These actions are in follow-up to the May 27, 2021, letter in which the FDA recommended a transition away from non-NIOSH-approved disposable respirators as well as from reusing decontaminated or bioburden-reduced disposable respirators.
• Testing updates:
  • As of today, 393 tests and sample collection devices are authorized by the FDA under emergency use authorizations (EUAs). These include 281 molecular tests and sample collection devices, 84 antibody and other immune response tests and 28 antigen tests. There are 52 molecular authorizations and one antibody authorization that can be used with home-collected samples. There is one molecular prescription at-home test, three antigen prescription at-home tests, five antigen over-the-counter (OTC) at-home tests and two molecular OTC at-home tests.
  • The FDA has authorized 11 antigen tests and three molecular tests for serial screening programs. The FDA has also authorized 557 revisions to EUA authorizations.