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<\/p>\nTwo top executives of Emergent BioSolutions, a previously obscure Maryland biotech firm whose Baltimore plant ruined millions of doses of coronavirus vaccine, have agreed to testify on Capitol Hill next week as part of a congressional investigation into their company, a politically connected federal contractor.<\/p>\n
Fuad El-Hibri, the company\u2019s founder and executive chairman, and Robert Kramer, its chief executive officer, will appear on May 19 before the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus, committee officials said on Wednesday morning. The panel has opened a sprawling inquiry into Emergent\u2019s manufacturing failures, and whether the company used its contacts with the Trump administration to land hundreds of millions of dollars in coronavirus vaccine contracts.<\/p>\n
\u201cEmergent\u2019s actions wasted American taxpayer dollars and reduced the number of doses available for global vaccination efforts,\u201d Representative Jim Clyburn, Democrat of South Carolina and the subcommittee\u2019s chairman, said in a statement to The Times. He said that Congress \u201cis looking for answers and they are long overdue.\u201d<\/p>\n
An investigation by The New York Times, published in March before the firm\u2019s vaccine manufacturing troubles were known, examined Emergent\u2019s aggressive lobbying tactics and lucrative relationship with the federal government.<\/p>\n
The hearing will put an unwelcome spotlight on the company, which kept a low profile over the past two decades as it cornered the market on sales of anthrax vaccines and other bioterror-related products to the Strategic National Stockpile, the nation\u2019s emergency medical reserve.<\/p>\n
Emergent\u2019s stock performed so well in 2020 that Mr. El-Hibri cashed in shares and options worth over $42 million, corporate filings show. Mr. Kramer, who has boasted to investors that \u201cextensive relationships across multiple agencies within the federal government\u201d helped build the company, took home a $1.2 million cash bonus and $2 million in stock awards.<\/p>\n
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In an interview with CNN on Wednesday morning, Mr. Clyburn indicated that the committee was also scrutinizing the executives\u2019 market moves. \u201cThey all made millions in stock transactions while they seem to be hiding stuff from the public,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The Times reported last month that workers at Emergent\u2019s Baltimore plant had accidentally conflated the ingredients of two coronavirus vaccines, one by Johnson & Johnson and the other by AstraZeneca. The error resulted in the loss of up to 15 million Johnson & Johnson doses, and a recent inspection by the Food and Drug Administration said that more doses may have been exposed to contamination.<\/p>\n
In a statement on Wednesday, the company said that it had responded to the F.D.A.\u2019s observations with a \u201ccomprehensive quality enhancement plan\u201d and had \u201calready started making improvements.\u201d<\/p>\n
On a recent call with investors, Mr. Kramer announced a management shake-up and took \u201cfull responsibility\u201d for the manufacturing problems, acknowledging that the \u201closs of a batch for a viral contamination is extremely serious, and we treated it as such.\u201d But he also said that Emergent had taken on a \u201cherculean task\u201d in a crisis.<\/p>\n
In letters to the two Emergent executives last month, Mr. Clyburn and Representative Carolyn Maloney, Democrat of New York and chairwoman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, demanded a slew of documents, including any correspondence between the company and Dr. Robert Kadlec, President Trump\u2019s assistant secretary for preparedness and response, who previously consulted for the company. In interviews, Dr. Kadlec has said his consulting work, in 2013 and 2014, was limited and did not affect contracting decisions.<\/p>\n
\u201cEmergent has been in the news a lot lately, and that\u2019s frankly not something we\u2019re used to,\u201d Mr. Kramer wrote in a commentary posted on the company\u2019s website last month. \u201cUntil a year ago we were a little-known company that does our work behind the scenes.\u201d<\/p>\n
The company is trying to burnish its image with television and digital advertising, as part of a campaign it is calling \u201cWe Go.\u201d The 30-second ads feature images of white-clad lab technicians and spotlight some of the company\u2019s lesser-known work manufacturing cholera vaccines and medicine used to treat opioid overdoses, as well as its Covid-19 work.<\/p>\n
Emergent\u2019s plant in Baltimore is one of two federally designated Centers for Innovation in Advanced Development and Manufacturing, funded in part by taxpayers. In June 2020, the federal government awarded Emergent a $628 million contract, largely to reserve space for coronavirus vaccine manufacturing, despite staffing and quality concerns.<\/p>\n
After The Biden administration responded to the potential contamination last month by putting Johnson & Johnson in charge of the Baltimore facility and moving out AstraZeneca. Doses made at the plant have not been cleared for use in the United States, and millions of shots made in Baltimore and sent overseas have also been put on hold.<\/p>\n