'It could be catastrophic': Woman says natural supplement contained hidden painkiller drug
A Manitoba woman thought she found a miracle natural supplement, but said a hidden ingredient wreaked havoc on her health.
Health Canada says it "will not be releasing" the 310,000 Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine doses that arrived in the country in April due to a possible quality control issue.
In a statement issued on Friday, Health Canada said it has completed its quality review of the shipment and has decided not to distribute them to provinces to "protect the health and safety of Canadians" amid concerns over the Baltimore facility part of the vaccine was produced at.
The J&J vaccine doses were previously being held for review after arriving in Canada upon learning that a drug substance used in the vaccine was produced at the Emergent BioSolutions' Baltimore facility. The plant had an error in March that led to millions of J&J doses being ruined.
The agency said the drug substance produced at the Emergent BioSolutions facility was used in the manufacturing of Canada's shipment of Janssen vaccines, but noted that the final vaccines were manufactured at a different site located outside of the U.S.
"Health Canada was unable to determine that this shipment of Janssen vaccines meets the Department's rigorous quality standards," the statement read.
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 COVID-19 vaccine that were manufactured at the Baltimore facility.
Production of J&J's vaccine at the Baltimore 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. An FDA inspection also found sanitary problems and bad manufacturing practices at the plant.
AstraZeneca's shot is no longer being made at the Baltimore facility, and Health Canada previously said that the 1.5 million doses of AstraZeneca it had imported from this facility were safe and met quality specifications.
To ensure the safety of "any future vaccine supply" from the facility, Health Canada said it is planning an onsite inspection of the factory this summer.
"Until this inspection has been completed, Canada will not be accepting any product or ingredients made at this site," Health Canada said.
The agency assured Canadians that any COVID-19 vaccines will only be released for distribution to the public once Health Canada is "satisfied that they meet the Department's high standards for quality, safety and efficacy."
At a press briefing on Friday, Joelle Paquette, director general for Public Services and Procurement Canada, said another shipment of J&J COVID-19 vaccines are expected to arrive in Canada by the end of June.
Paquette did not elaborate on the number of doses that would be in the shipment or where this batch of vaccines was being manufactured.
A Manitoba woman thought she found a miracle natural supplement, but said a hidden ingredient wreaked havoc on her health.
Police have released video footage of a dramatic takedown of a group of teens wanted in connection with an attempted carjacking in Markham earlier this month.
Hospital chaplain J.S. Park opens up about death, grief and hearing thousands of last words, and shares his advice for the living.
Group of Seven foreign ministers warned of new sanctions against Iran on Friday for its drone and missile attack on Israel, and urged both sides to avoid an escalation of the conflict.
The World Health Organization is likely to issue a wider warning about contaminated Johnson and Johnson-made children's cough syrup found in Nigeria last week, it said in an email.
Tesla is recalling 3,878 of its 2024 Cybertrucks after it discovered that the accelerator pedal can become stuck, potentially causing the vehicle to accelerate unintentionally and increase the risk of a crash.
A woman who recently moved to Canada from India was searching for a job when she got caught in an online job scam and lost $15,000.
Every good wedding has to have one teensy, tiny crisis.
More money will land in the pockets of some Canadian families on Friday for the latest Canada Child Benefit installment.
At 6'8" and 350 pounds, there is nothing typical about UBC offensive lineman Giovanni Manu, who was born in Tonga and went to high school in Pitt Meadows.
Kevin the cat has been reunited with his family after enduring a harrowing three-day ordeal while lost at Toronto Pearson International Airport earlier this week.
Molly Knight, a grade four student in Nova Scotia, noticed her school library did not have many books on female athletes, so she started her own book drive in hopes of changing that.
Almost 7,000 bars of pure gold were stolen from Pearson International Airport exactly one year ago during an elaborate heist, but so far only a tiny fraction of that stolen loot has been found.
When Les Robertson was walking home from the gym in North Vancouver's Lower Lonsdale neighbourhood three weeks ago, he did a double take. Standing near a burrow it had dug in a vacant lot near East 1st Street and St. Georges Avenue was a yellow-bellied marmot.
A moulting seal who was relocated after drawing daily crowds of onlookers in Greater Victoria has made a surprise return, after what officials described as an 'astonishing' six-day journey.
Just steps from Parliament Hill is a barber shop that for the last 100 years has catered to everyone from prime ministers to tourists.
A high score on a Foo Fighters pinball machine has Edmonton player Dave Formenti on a high.
A compound used to treat sour gas that's been linked to fertility issues in cattle has been found throughout groundwater in the Prairies, according to a new study.