Health Canada won’t release over 300K J&J COVID-19 vaccine doses due to quality issues

The shipment of Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines that arrived in April, and were held back by Health Canada over quality concerns, will not be released in Canada, the agency confirmed Friday.

“To protect the health and safety of Canadians in response to concerns regarding a drug substance produced at the Emergent BioSolutions facility in Baltimore Maryland, Health Canada will not be releasing the shipment,” a statement from Health Canada said.

The drug substance produced at a facility in Baltimore, which was previously found to have been producing vaccines haphazardly, was used in the shipment, the statement read.

The agency also confirmed that Canada would not be accepting any more products or ingredients made at the facility.

More to come…