Vaccine makers said no to Canada
Every vaccine maker was asked to make their doses in Canada and all said no: Anand
OTTAWA — Every COVID-19 vaccine maker Canada signed a contract with last summer was asked if they could make the doses in Canada and all of them concluded they could not, Procurement Minister Anita Anand said Thursday.
Anand told the House of Commons industry committee that her department “proactively and repeatedly approached leading vaccine manufacturers” about the matter.
“We took this issue up with suppliers at every turn at the negotiating table to discern whether they would come to the table with this possibility of domestic biomanufacturing,” Anand said.
“The manufacturers reviewed the identified assets here in Canada and concluded that biomanufacturing capacity in this country, at the time of contract, which was last August and September, was too limited to justify the investment of capital and expertise to start manufacturing in Canada.”
Many of the COVID-19 vaccine makers sought partners to help produce their product. Moderna signed a 10year exclusivity agreement with Swiss manufacturer Lonza to make its vaccine. AstraZeneca sought deals with multiple countries to produce its vaccine last summer and fall, including China, Brazil,
Mexico, Australia, India and South Korea.
NDP MP Don Davies questioned why Canada isn’t among them, and Anand said “I raised this issue personally with AstraZeneca last August.”
A spokesman for AstraZeneca confirmed Anand’s statements related to its vaccine, known as AZD1222.
“During the course of our discussions with the Canadian government, we reviewed in-country manufacturing capability and available capacity against the technical requirements for AZD1222,” said Carlo Mastrangelo, AstraZeneca’s director of corporate communications and sustainability.
“After discussion with the government and our technical experts, we agreed that the fastest and most effective option to ensure timely Canadian supply of AZD1222 was to leverage an existing supply chain that was already established and beginning the qualification process.”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced earlier this week Canada has a new contract with Marylandbased Novavax to eventually make doses of its vaccine at a new National Research Council facility going up in Montreal.
Novavax CEO Stanley Erck said in a statement his company sees the deal with Canada as “an important step forward in our quest to deliver an urgently needed safe and effective vaccine.”
“The memorandum of understanding also includes a broader intention for the government of Canada and Novavax to work together to increase the company’s Canadian presence,” he said.
But the new NRC building won’t be finished until the summer and the new doses are not likely to start being pumped out until late fall at the earliest, long after Canada expects to import enough doses to vaccinate the entire population.
Vaccine manufacturing will be newly available at the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization at the University of Saskatchewan next year, and at Precision Nanosystems in B.C. in 2023. But none of that helps Canada make doses of COVID-19 vaccines today, and the delays to Canada’s shipments continue.
Moderna was to deliver 230,000 doses to Canada this week, but 180,000 arrived Thursday morning instead.