Vaccine drive looks to Canada for support

OTTAWA • When Bill Gates and others, including representatives of Norway, Germany and Japan, took the stage in Davos last month to announce a new global vaccine initiative, there was a person missing.

At one point, officials with the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness and Innovations had been holding a place on the stage for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Postmedia News has been told, hoping he would participate. There was even talk of having the prime minister of Norway call Trudeau and encourage him to announce at Davos that Canada was a funding partner of the initiative.

When Trudeau cancelled his trip to the World Economic Forum to do a crosscountry Canadian tour instead, the event went on without him.

The group, including governments, philanthropists and businesses, announced they were putting $460 million into the endeavour, about half of what is needed for its first five years, to stop pandemics before they start.

Officials with the coalition are still counting on Canada to be a key player, and financial backer to the tune of more than $100 million.

Canada’s role in developing the Ebola vaccine makes it an obvious fit for the organization. The coalition’s aim is to prevent another devastating public health crisis like the West African Ebola outbreak that killed more than 11,000 people by having vaccines for deadly viruses ready ahead of time. CEPI wants to prepare vaccines for three viruses: Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS)-coronavirus, Lassa and Nipah.

The initiative is building on both the hard lessons of the Ebola epidemic, including the slow response, as well as the successes of the Canadian-developed Ebola vaccine, VSV-EBOV, which wasn’t ready in time to stop the epidemic. The vaccine eventually proved effective in preventing Ebola during a clinical trial in Guinea, where the Ebola outbreak began. It has not yet been licensed.

In Guinea, the vaccine is called “Canada’s vaccine,” but to the rest of the world it is increasingly known as the Merck vaccine, for the pharmaceutical company that is producing it.

Jeremy Carver, founding president and CEO of the International Consortium on Anti-Virals and emeritus professor at the University of Toronto, said he was in touch with the Prime Minister’s Office before the Davos meeting, urging Trudeau to attend and take some credit for the Ebola vaccine on behalf of Winnipeg’s National Microbial Laboratories, where it was developed.

“When the PM cancelled his Davos trip, we lost that opportunity,” he said.

What is remarkable, Carver added, is that there is little acknowledgment of Canada’s role in developing the vaccine, even though CEPI is raising money for its vaccine initiative primarily on the basis of the success of that vaccine — VSV-EBOV.

John-Arne Rottingen, interim head of CEPI, said he believes Canada is a “potential core partner” with the organization.

Japan, Norway and Germany have promised to invest between $100 million and $125 million over five years as part of the initiative. There have already been discussions between CEPI and some government officials, he said.

A spokesperson for the Public Health Agency of Canada said it is monitoring the organization’s work “with interest.”

“At this time, Canada is not currently a member of CEPI, nor does it provide financial contributions to it. However, representatives from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research previously attended meetings with CEPI as part of its work on Ebola,” said Rebecca Gilman.

Rottingen called Canada a “potential leading country” in the initiative, saying it is an important political voice on global health as well as science.

“Canada is an ideal country and we will leave it in the hands of Canada to make a decision. We have invited (it to collaborate) and we will wait and see.”

Carver, meanwhile, would like Canada’s contribution to the vaccine effort to also support his initiative on anti-virals. The International Consortium on Anti-Virals wants to set up production facilities in Canada, India, Nigeria and China to produce anti-viral treatments for deadly viruses. Its aim is similar to CEPIs, but to prevent the next deadly epidemic with anti-viral medication rather than vaccines.

But he noted anti-virals can treat people who are already sick and protect others from becoming sick, “which is the best way to deal with outbreaks.”