Regulators could approve the first promising COVID-19 vaccine in December, but it will take weeks after that for Canadians to be able to get a dose. Health Canada’s chief medical adviser briefed reporters Thursday.

Likely weeks later before shots are available

OTTAWA • Canadian regulators could approve the first promising COVID-19 vaccine as early as next month, but it will likely take weeks after that for Canadians to be able to get a dose.

Government officials held the first of what they promise will be weekly briefings on the rollout for COVID-19 vaccines, a question which has dominated the House of Commons this week. Several companies have reported strong results from their last phase of clinical trials and countries around the world are making plans for their rollout.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said earlier this week Canadians would likely not get the first doses of any vaccines, because Canada doesn’t have manufacturing capacity here.

Pfizer’s vaccine, which has shown to be very effective in clinical trials, is the furthest along in the review process and could be approved in the U.S. by mid-december.

Dr. Supriya Sharma, the chief medical adviser at Health Canada, said they’re working closely with U.S. and other international approval bodies and she is confident if the data prove accurate they will be approving the vaccine around the same time.

“We’re expecting to make a final decision on the vaccines around the same time as both the U. S. FDA and the European Medicines Agency,” she said.

Sharma said if that schedule holds true, they expect doses to arrive in early January and possibly even earlier.

“We’re talking about January in terms of getting our first shipment. If everything goes well and if it goes smoothly they might be earlier,” she said.

Health Canada has instituted a rolling regulatory process for COVID-19 vaccines, allowing companies to submit data piece by piece, rather than waiting until all information is available before submitting their product for approval.

Sharma said that should help speed up the process, but regulators still have to review thousands of pages of information and data.

Pfizer and Moderna are the furthest in that process and both use a new technology, with manufacturing based in other countries. There is no manufacturing capability in Canada for their vaccines.

Arianne Reza, assistant deputy minister, procurement, said they are in regular talks with manufacturers and have been assured vaccines will begin to flow soon after regulatory approval.

“We’ve talked with the vaccine manufacturers and they have assured us that the minute regulatory approval goes through they will be able to go quite quickly afterwards.”

The government has not revealed the precise delivery timelines in their contracts with manufacturers. Government sources speaking on background said when they were first detailed in the summer, the contracts specified only delivery dates in the first quarter of 2021, but talks have continued since to refine timelines.

Health ministers in several provinces have said this week they need more details from Ottawa to plan a vaccine campaign.

Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner said there is too little clarity for something so essential.

“Provincial governments are saying the same thing. We’ve got Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Ontario within the last 24 hours saying that they don’t have details,” she said. “These are basic questions that should have been answered months ago. What has the government been doing for 11 months?”

Rempel Garner said if Canada’s vaccine rollout comes after other countries the government is going to have to explain to the Canadians who die from the virus in the interim why they didn’t do better.

Dr. Howard Njoo, Canada’s deputy chief public health officer, said while the vaccines will be available in early 2021 the initial numbers may only provide enough to vaccinate a small part of the population.

“It’s important to note that the initial supply of these vaccines will be limited,” he said.

Njoo confirmed that between Pfizer and Moderna’s vaccines, the government was expecting six million doses in the first three months of the year, enough to vaccinate three million Canadians.

He said however they expected the number of doses will rise considerably as the year goes on.

“As we move on throughout the year we certainly anticipate getting the rest of our doses from those two companies,” he said.

He said he is hopeful all Canadians could have the vaccine by late 2021 and most would be vaccinated before next September, but he cautioned it will be a challenge.

“If everything goes according to plan, but there’s always lots of moving parts.”