Alberta touts vaccine prowess

Urges inclusion in domestic COVID solution

EDMONTON • The Alberta government has written to the Liberals in Ottawa, seeking support to improve vaccine manufacturing capacity and swift approval of any made-in-Alberta COVID-19 vaccines.

The letter, sent by Tyler Shandro, the provincial health minister and Doug Schweitzer, the economy, innovation and jobs minister, to their federal counterparts, Patty Hajdu in health and François-Philippe Champagne in innovation and science, on Jan. 19, says that Alberta has world-class virology institutions, and there’s a need to work to build stronger internal supply chains.

“It’s really driven home to us the fact that there are gaps in international supply chains, particularly in an emergency,” said Schweitzer in an interview.

“We really have to make sure, from a public safety and public security standpoint, (we) have a domestic supply chain in health care.”

“Canada needs to rethink how we procure a lot of our supplies, and the federal government has to play that leadership role.”

The news comes as the federal government struggles to distribute enough doses to the provinces and territories. On Thursday, Maj.-Gen. Dany Fortin, who’s in charge of Canada’s vaccine distribution, said Pfizer will send just shy of 150,000 doses to Canada over the next two weeks — one-fifth of what was promised.

The federal government has spent tens of millions of dollars across several Canadian companies and potential vaccines, including Entos Pharmaceuticals, which has partnered with the University of Alberta. Other governments, including Alberta, have spent money during the pandemic to acquire personal protective equipment.

“Given the global need for vaccines, treatments, and diagnostic tests against COVID-19, we encourage all efforts by Health Canada to accelerate approval of any future Alberta-made vaccine, treatments, or diagnostic test; as well as joint efforts ... that support manufacturing scale-up of such products,” the letter says.

Alberta has the ability, Schweitzer said, to help solve vaccination problems across the world, citing the University of Alberta’s Applied Virology Institute, which is headed by Dr. Michael Houghton, a Nobel prize winner, for discovering the Hepatitis C virus.

Development of the sector would also help to provide the economic diversification Alberta needs as the province continues to suffer in a prolonged recession caused by collapsing oil prices, Schweitzer said.

Especially with the likely need for COVID-19 booster shots, Schweitzer said Alberta is poised to “play a leadership role internationally” in vaccine development.

Tyler Shandro