Virus research gets $7M injection

Fifteen scientific teams across Ontario to receive funding to find cure

Fifteen research teams across the province will receive $7 million from the government to help develop vaccines or treatments to fight COVID-19.

The first projects to receive money under the new $20-million “rapid research fund” include four vaccine trials led by the University of Guelph.

“The key to beating this virus once and for all, the key to getting things back to normal, is finding a vaccine, finding a cure,” Premier Doug Ford said at Queen’s Park on Thursday. “Because until we find that vaccine, the fight isn’t over.”

With the new fund, first announced a month ago, “we armed our best and brightest with the funding and the tools they need,” Ford said. “We made that investment, because I believe in the people of this province.”

Other projects include rapid lab testing by St. Joseph’s in Hamilton and McMaster studies looking at the plasma of those patients who have recovered from COVID-19, as well as testing for the virus using stool samples.

Researchers based at Western University will study how the pandemic has affected food businesses and another team at the University of Toronto will examine the immune response to the virus.

“They have the potential to be a game-changer, not just for Ontario, but for Canada and the entire world, and I want that vaccine to be discovered right here in Ontario,” said Ford. “I want us to be the global leaders in this fight, and I know we will be.”

Ford noted the province already has more than 20 COVID-19 vaccine and treatment trials under way.

Colleges and Universities Minister Ross Romano said this initial $7.2 million “was focused on proposals that have a legitimate chance of success and that could produce immediate results. And that was a principle goal that we had for the work being done through these research proposals, and that was of critical importance to us.”