National Post (National Edition)
Anand says Canada has spent $8 billion on vaccine deals
Procurement minister testifies at committee
OTTAWA • Procurement Minister Anita Anand revealed the government has spent $8 billion on vaccine contracts and defended at a House of Commons committee Wednesday the government's overall performance getting shots delivered to Canadians.
Anand appeared before the House of Commons government operations committee and said the government has spent about $8 billion on the vaccine deals with seven different companies for hundreds of millions of total doses.
She said she wants to provide more transparency about the details of the contracts, but doesn't want to break confidentiality clauses in the agreements with pharmaceutical companies that could threaten Canada's supply
“We are working with the companies in terms of what they are comfortable disclosing, but at the current time those negotiations are ongoing,” she told MPs at committee.
Anand stressed the government was ahead of its targets, having delivered 9.5 million doses by the end of March, when it had originally promised provinces six million doses. She also pointed out Canada is third in the G7 in providing first doses of vaccines.
Conservative MP Kelly McCauley said the government was only able to make those claims because Canada had delayed the interval between the first and second dose to four months.
“We're not able to give the second dose because your government has failed Canadian so miserably,” he said. “Lives are being destroyed.”
Anand said it was ultimately the provinces who decided the dosing strategy after getting recommendations from the National Advisory Council on Immunization. She said the government would like to have more vaccines of course, but believes the government has delivered.
“We all want more vaccines coming into this country. That's what lights my fire every single day. But suffice it to say that a diversified portfolio of vaccines has served Canada well.”
She said that as of Tuesday 12 million doses had arrived in Canada in total and provinces had a two-week supply at their current inoculation rates.
Canada's Moderna shipments have been delayed in recent weeks. Anand said those delays have been three to four days at most and related to the quality assurance at the company's facility.
“There is a backlog of vaccines that need to be tested before they can leave the factory.”
Anand said she expects every Canadian can receive a first dose by the end of June and be fully vaccinated by the end of September and that should remain the case even without doses of the AstraZeneca or Johnson and Johnson vaccines.
“Pfizer and Moderna, are the workhorses of our portfolio. We have 44 million doses of Moderna and we have 40 million doses of Pfizer.”
Earlier this week, the U.S. suspended use of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine for further review to investigate rare blood clots that have happened in six people after 6.8 million shots were administered.
Conservative MP Pierre Paul-Hus asked Anand if Canada could abandon that contract. Anand said Health Canada still viewed the vaccine as safe and effective and Canada would be going ahead with the contract.
Anand's testimony came the same day Health Canada completed a preliminary review of the AstraZeneca vaccine and declared it safe for people in all age groups.
Health Canada did find that the vaccine comes with a rare risk of blood clots, but found that risk to be remote. So far only one case has been identified in Canada, and Dr. Supriya Sharma, the department's chief medical adviser, said they believe the chance of a clot is one in 450,000.
The department will add a warning about the risk to the vaccine, but overall she said it is a safe choice and everyone should be vaccinated.
Studies from Europe have found a few dozen cases in millions of doses of AstraZeneca administered there.
Denmark took the rare step of suspending use of the AstraZeneca vaccine on Wednesday and other nations lined up to buy the country's shots.
Canada currently limits that vaccine to people over the age of 55 based on a recommendation from the National Advisory Committee on Immunization. Sharma said they have forwarded their data to the committee who will reassess the age restriction in the coming days.
Sharma said Health Canada's review did not find any specific age or sex was more vulnerable to the clotting issue, in contrast to previous studies that have shown it mostly impacts young women. Citing privacy, the government has released few details about the one case of rare blood clots connected to a vaccine in Canada, but Sharma did reveal the person was a woman from Quebec and was over the age of 55. The woman did not suffer any serious harm and is recovering at home.