Domestic vaccine capacity must be a bigger priority

New public research from Leger confirms what has been obvious in recent public discourse: Who you blame for Canada’s slow rollout of COVID-19 vaccines depends on your political leanings.

If you support the Conservatives, Bloc Québécois or NDP, you probably blame the government most. But if you support the government, or interestingly, the Green party, you are more likely to blame vaccine manufacturers.

One thing most Canadians of all political stripes should be able to agree on is that the lack of domestic vaccine manufacturing capacity has not helped. Here, in a week when vaccine supply is set to increase dramatically, it’s a question worth discussion.

To date, Canada has vaccinated about three per cent of its population with at least one dose of either Pfizer-biontech or Moderna vaccines. That’s 1.4 million doses. Provinces are expecting to roll out another 1.5 million doses over the next three weeks.

Countries like the United Kingdom and the United States, which have domestic manufacturing capability, are much further down the road. Did Canada miss the boat on developing similar capacity?

The government tried to make domestic production happen, but it hasn’t worked, at least not yet. All the companies that were in the running were asked to manufacture vaccines in Canada, or to allow other companies to make vaccines here under licence. They all declined, for reasons not always clear, although the absence of vaccine manufacturing industrial infrastructure was a factor.

Last spring Ottawa announced a $44-million upgrade at the National Research Council in Montreal. It was to be ready in November, but the deal with Chinese partner Cansino collapsed. Even if it had not, the plan was to make only 250,000 vaccines doses a month — a useful but small contribution.

Then, in August, the government gave the NRC $126 million to build a new facility. It won’t be ready until late this year when it starts to make two million Novovax doses every month. In short, it’s a positive development that should help in the future but does nothing to address this winter and spring’s vaccine campaign. For that, all we can do is hope more vaccines are approved soon and previously-signed contracts are honoured.

Which does not mean the government can take its foot off the gas on domestic capacity. A leading health expert who is advising the government says this pandemic should be viewed as a wake-up call.

Dr. Alan Bernstein says that especially with new COVID variants emerging, it is likely Canadians will need multiple vaccines for as long as several years. In an interview with CTV, Bernstein said: “We need domestic vaccine production capacity in the country for the next pandemic, and also for this pandemic. If there are variants arising, we may be designing second, third-generation vaccines and vaccinating the population for the next two or three years.”

So, knowing all this, is the government doing enough to encourage and support domestic production? Not according to one Alberta-based company that currently has a Canadian-made vaccine in human trials. Providence Therapeutics says it has asked the government for support to speed up development but hasn’t had a response.

Company CEO Brad Sorenson said: “The apathetic response of the Government of Canada to a serious proposal that could save lives is unacceptable. Review it and reject it if there is no merit, embrace it if it’s viable, but do something.”

Even with everything we now know, it seems the federal government doesn’t have an appropriate sense of urgency around domestic vaccine production. That needs to change.