A MAN has appeared in court charged with sending a suspicious package to a coronavirus vaccine production site.
All staff had to be evacuated from the Wockhardt site in Wrexham, North Wales, on Wednesday as the package was investigated.
Wockhardt, a global pharmaceutical and biotechnology company, provides fill-and-finish services for the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine – the final stage of putting the vaccine into vials.
The vaccine was developed in Headington, Oxford.
A spokesman for Kent Police said Anthony Collins, of Chatham Hill, Chatham, had been charged with dispatching an article by post with the intention of inducing the belief it was likely to explode or ignite.
He appeared at Medway Magistrates’ Court today and was remanded in custody, the spokesman said.
The 53-year-old, who was arrested on Thursday, will next appear at Maidstone Crown Court on February 26.
Production ground to a halt at the site on Wednesday as the item, which police said was not a viable device, was investigated.
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