Trudeau announces made-in-Canada deal
OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced the first deal for a made-in-Canada vaccine candidate, adding to the other deals Canada has already signed to secure hundreds of millions of doses for promising COVID-19 vaccines.
Trudeau also said it’s reasonable to expect vaccines will roll out sometime in 2021, but cautioned it will depend how safety trials proceed in the coming months.
“We are hopeful that the vaccines will arrive yesterday, but they won’t, there’s still a number more months of work to do,” Trudeau said at a Friday news conference in Ottawa. “I think the reasonable expectation is that vaccines could start to arrive sometime in the new year. But even then, there will be smaller amounts of doses that will have to be distributed to priority populations.”
Trudeau announced Canada has signed a $173-million deal to help Canadian biotech firm Medicago develop their vaccine candidate and build a production facility in Quebec City, where the company is headquartered. He said the government has agreed to buy 76 million doses of their vaccine.
Medicago began a Phase 1 trial for its vaccine in July with 180 volunteers, and plans to start Phase 2 in early November and Phase 3 in December.
Trudeau also said the government is giving $18.2 million to Vancouver-based firm Precision NanoSystems, which also has a vaccine candidate, and is committing a further $23 million in funding for early-stage vaccine development by other Canadian companies.
The federal government already has deals in place for leading vaccine candidates from global firms that are currently doing Phase 3 testing, including Moderna, Pzifer and AstraZeneca.
“We’re coming at this from every angle, whether that’s investing in Canadian research or securing the world’s most promising candidate vaccines,” Trudeau said. “When a vaccine is ready, Canada will be too.”
Meanwhile, Trudeau said rapid testing devices have started to be delivered in provinces and should be put into use soon.
“We have now received hundreds of thousands of the Abbott Panbio rapid tests, which are currently being distributed across the country,” he said. “Two trucks of the other Abbott rapid test, ID NOW, have also arrived in Ontario, with more coming soon.”
One use of rapid testing will be a pilot project in Alberta that aims to reduce the 14-day quarantine time for international travellers. But Trudeau said different provinces may make different uses of the rapid testing tools.
“Access to rapid tests will vary across the country, depending on the strategy put forward by the province in question,” Trudeau said. “Rapid tests are one element, have advantages and also disadvantages, and need to be part of a whole strategy on testing, on tracing, on controlling the spread of COVID-19.”
Trudeau said people must remain vigilant and follow public health advice, noting Canada recorded its highestever count of new COVID-19 cases on Thursday. “We must reduce the spread, people’s lives are in danger,” he said.