Canada still expecting three new vaccines
Critics say they should be sent to countries in need
• Canada is likely to get at least 120 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine that will come too late to help with the country’s rollout and advocates argue it should commit now to giving those vaccines to the developing world as soon as possible.
Canada has contracts with Pfizer and Moderna that offer enough doses alone to fully vaccinate every Canadian by September. On top of that, there are additional doses from Johnson and Johnson, and Astrazeneca that could be used.
But the government also has three more contracts with Novavax for 52 million doses, Medicago for 20 million doses and Sanofi Pasteur partnered with Glaxo Smith Kline for another 52 million shots.
Those figures represent Canada’s base orders with the government having options for tens of millions of more shots from those companies, but none of their vaccines have even been approved by Health Canada, and distribution is still at least several months away.
Like the Pfizer, Moderna and Astrazeneca doses Canada has already given out, all of the remaining candidates are two-dose vaccines, but the government is projecting to have first doses to everyone by June, meaning they will likely arrive too late to be used.
Novavax, which has orders from countries all over the world, is projecting it will be able to make 100 million doses a month by the end of summer, ramping up to 150 million a month at the end of the year.
In a press release issued earlier this week, the company reported strong early results from its phase three clinical trials, but it is still evaluating data before it is ready to ask for regulatory approval.
Medicago has phase three trials underway and expects to report results early this summer with doses potentially available in the fall.
Sanofi is also in clinical trials and the company is expecting to deliver doses in the fourth quarter of this year. It reformulated its vaccine after early results showed it wasn’t providing a strong immune response.
In a press release earlier this year, Thomas Triomphe, Executive Vice President and Head of Sanofi Pasteur, said they were getting closer to a vaccine that could be used in the fight against the pandemic.
“We have demonstrated our commitment to focusing efforts and capabilities towards the global fight against the pandemic, and this new study takes us a step closer to achieving our primary goal of developing a COVID-19 vaccine with a good efficacy and safety profile.”
In a statement, Procurement Minister Anita Anand said the government’s focus right now is getting vaccines to Canadians and the question of what to do with excess is still being discussed.
“I am encouraged that the conversation is shifting to consider what Canada will do with any expected excess vaccines five months from now,” she said. “However, I continue to be focused on accelerating the delivery of as many vaccines as possible for Canadians now. This is my priority.”
The government has refused to release the value of individual contracts, but has said publicly the cumulative cost of the seven vaccine contracts is over $8 billion.
Anand said the government will wait for guidance from the Public Health Agency of Canada on the government can afford to release doses, but they will be donated to countries that need them.
“Our government will make decisions on various options regarding any excess doses, as has been publicly committed, this includes donations to the international community.”
Siham Rayale, a policy specialist with Oxfam Canada said the COVAX facility would be the best outlet for these extra doses and it should commit to sending these doses there now.
“The COVAX facility is specifically designed to ensure that vaccines get to poor countries and poor nations, that would be an ideal place for Canada,” she said.
She said if the government commits its surplus doses early it will give COVAX valuable information to plan for vaccinating the developing world, which has received very few vaccines.
Canada is a major contributor to COVAX, which sees wealthy nations pool their resources to purchase vaccines both for themselves and for developing countries. Canada is one of a few developed nations to actually take vaccines from COVAX.
The federal government took 300,000 doses of the Astrazeneca vaccine from the facility and is expected to take 655,000 more in the coming weeks.