Feds to make decision on Pfizer approval soon

Britain gives Pfizer early go-ahead

Canada is drawing closer to making a decision on a leading COVID-19 vaccine candidate, Health Minister Patty Hajdu said Wednesday as the federal government continued to face pressure to deliver on doses amid mounting cases and deaths.

Hajdu's comments came soon after Britain approved Pfizer Inc.'s COVID-19 vaccine, jumping ahead of the rest of the world in the race to begin the most crucial mass inoculation program in history.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson touted the green light from Britain's medicine authority as a global win and a ray of hope for the end of the pandemic.

Hajdu described the U.K.'S decision to authorize the vaccine made by Pfizer and its German partner BionTech as “encouraging.”

“Health Canada's review of this candidate is ongoing, and is expected to be completed soon,” she wrote.

The Liberal government has been facing criticism on vaccines since Prime Minister Justin Trudeau admitted last week that other countries with domestic vaccine production are likely to inoculate their citizens first before shipping doses to Canada.

On Wednesday, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said it was “completely wrong” that Canada no longer has the capacity to manufacture vaccines — something he blamed on both the Liberals and the previous Conservative governments.

Singh called for the creation of a new Crown corporation to restore the capacity to produce vaccines and other critical medications.

“We should be able to do it at home,” he said.

Trudeau also came under fire from the Conservatives, who questioned why Canada is seemingly behind the United Kingdom in the vaccine process.

“Right now, as we speak, Health Canada is looking at four different vaccine candidates — candidates that are leading around the world and that we have signed for tens of millions of doses for,” Trudeau said in response to a question from Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner.

Health Canada's chief medical adviser said last week that several vaccine candidates are under review, and the first could be approved sometime this month.

Dr. Supriya Sharma said at a briefing on Nov. 26 that the agency expected to make a decision on approval at around the same time as regulators in the United States and Europe.

On Wednesday, Health Canada reiterated in a statement that it was working with international regulators, including those in the United Kingdom, but would make its own decision.

“A vaccine would only be authorized in Canada following the completion of an independent review process assessing its safety, efficacy and quality,” Health Canada said.

Canada's chief public health officer, Dr. Theresa Tam, described the vaccine effort as “one of the most consequential scientific endeavours in living memory” and “one of the most complex operations ever taken in public health.”

Speaking at a vaccine conference, she said the country is working to further refine the list of who gets the vaccine first, since the initial six million doses expected to come in early 2021 — enough for three million people — aren't enough for everyone on the national vaccine advisory committee's list of priority groups, which include the ill and elderly, health-care workers and essential workers.

In the U.K., Johnson said he might be persuaded to take a COVID-19 shot on television to show it was safe, but he would not have one before those in greater need, his press secretary said.

Britain said it would start vaccinating early next week those most at risk of dying after it gets 800,000 doses from Pfizer's manufacturing centre in Belgium, and U.K. Health Secretary Matt Hancock said tests on that first batch had been completed.

Johnson said life would

THE VACCINE EFFORT IS `ONE OF THE MOST CONSEQUENTIAL SCIENTIFIC OPERATIONS EVER TAKEN.'

not return to normal right away, but there was now certainty that things would improve. He said the vaccines would not be mandatory but strongly encouraged eligible people to take them.

The speed of the rollout depends on how fast Pfizer can manufacture and deliver the vaccine — and the extreme temperature of -70 C at which it must be stored. It can be kept for five days in a regular fridge.

Britain has ordered 40 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine — enough for just under a third of the population as two shots are needed per person to gain immunity.