OTTAWA -- A government official confirmed to a House of Commons’ committee Monday that Johnson & Johnson will have to make up for the more than 300,000 doses that have been tossed out by Health Canada due to a possible quality control issue.
Speaking before health committee members, Bill Matthews, the deputy procurement minister, said the batch that arrived in April from a Baltimore, Md. facility will not “count against the deliveries under the contract with J&J.â€
He said the doses currently sitting in quarantine will be destroyed at some point soon.
Late last Friday, Health Canada said it had completed its quality review of the shipment and has decided not to distribute them to provinces to "protect the health and safety of Canadians.â€
The doses were being held after concerns that a substance used in the vaccine was manufactured at Emergent BioSolutions at the same time a separate batch of vaccines was contaminated.
“Health Canada was unable to determine that this shipment of Janssen vaccines meets the department's rigorous quality standards,†the statement reads. “To ensure the safety of any future vaccine supply from this facility, Health Canada is planning an onsite inspection, expected to take place this summer. Until this inspection has been completed, Canada will not be accepting any product or ingredients made at this site.â€
The announcement comes after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said on Friday that J&J must throw away millions of doses of its vaccine that were manufactured at the Baltimore facility.
Production of J&J's vaccine at the site was halted by the FDA after discovering that ingredients from AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine -- also being produced at the plant at the time -- contaminated a batch of J&J's vaccine. A FDA inspection also found sanitary problems and bad manufacturing practices at the plant.
Canada has secured 10 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
With a file from Â鶹´«Ã½â€™ Brooklyn Neustaeter.
