President Biden visit to Baltimore’s Emergent BioSolutions plant is canceled

The White House has canceled President Joe Biden’s planned visit on Wednesday to Emergent BioSolutions’ plant in East Baltimore. It would have been the Democrat’s first visit to Baltimore as chief executive.

Instead, the White House said in a scheduling plan, the president will host an event at the White House that day with the CEOs of two of the drug companies—Johnson & Johnson and Merck — who had been scheduled to participate in the Baltimore event.

The event will focus on the the “historic partnership” of Johnson & Johnson and Merck to produce more COVID-19 vaccines, the planning document said.

The release does not specify why Emergent BioSolutions is not included. The New York Times reported over the weekend that the federal government has paid Emergent $626 million for products to fight a terrorist attack using anthrax, putting pressure on the National Strategic Stockpile.

That left the government, the newspaper said, “with less money to buy supplies needed in a pandemic, despite repeatedly being advised to do so..”

“The Administration is always welcome to visit our facilities,” Emergent BioSolutions said in a statement. “We applaud the work of the White House coronavirus task force to forge partnerships and expedite the vaccine production process. We remain focused on working around the clock to do our part in manufacturing the vaccines needed to beat this pandemic.

Emergent been making coronavirus vaccine for months. Johnson & Johnson is among the pharmaceutical companies contracting with Emergent.

Last week, Biden announced a partnership under which Merck, a pharmaceutical rival of Johnson & Johnson, will help make the J&J vaccine. “This is the type of collaboration between companies we saw in World War II,” the president said.

This article will be updated.

Baltimore Sun reporter Hallie Miller contributed to this article.