Biden cancels visit to vaccine maker after Times report on its tactics

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Monday canceled a visit to a coronavirus vaccine plant run by Emergent BioSolutions, and his spokeswoman announced that the administration would conduct an audit of the Strategic National Stockpile, the nation’s emergency medical reserve.

Both actions came after a New York Times investigation into how the company gained outsize influence over the repository.

Instead of visiting Emergent’s facility in Baltimore on Wednesday, the president will convene a meeting at the White House with executives of the pharmaceutical giants Merck & Co. and Johnson & Johnson, who were also to attend the session in Baltimore, White House officials said. Merck and Emergent are each separately partnering with Johnson & Johnson to manufacture that company’s coronavirus vaccine.

“We just felt it was a more appropriate place to have the meeting,” Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, told reporters.

Read more: https://www.boston.com/news/coronavirus/2021/03/08/biden-cancels-visit-to-vaccine-maker-after-times-report-on-its-tactics