Health Canada said on Friday it will not release the 300,000 doses of Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine that had arrived in Canada in April due to a possible quality issue.

"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," the government department said in a statement.

The statement came after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said on Friday that Johnson & Johnson must throw away millions of doses of its COVID-19 vaccine that were manufactured at the Baltimore facility.