Canada’s surprising partnership with a Chinese company
And its military-backed COVID-19 vaccine attempt
When Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced last month that Canada would soon be holding human trials of a new COVID-19 vaccine, there was a lot of excitement, and some confusion.
The developer of the would-be vaccine was a Chinese company called Cansino Biologics, hardly a household name in the pharmaceutical industry.
But not only is Cansino a leader in the international race to find a preventive solution to the pandemic — working alonside the Chinese military’s medical-science division — it has surprisingly deep roots in this country.
The vaccine is based on a cell line developed by the National Research Council. The company has worked with the NRC previously on an Ebola vaccine, and with scientists at the council and Mcmaster University on a tuberculosis shot. More recently, it partnered with a Vancouver-based bio technology company that came up with its own COVID-19 vaccine candidate.
Cansino reached a significant milestone last month, becoming the first company in the world to publish peerreviewed results of a COVID19 vaccine trial.
But at a time of historically sour relations between Canada and China, some experts are questioning Ottawa’s decision to invest in the project.
Those early trial results were a mixed bag at best, argues Amir Attaran, a University of Ottawa health policy professor, while other COVID vaccines seem more promising and are backed by major Western universities and companies.
“Why would we not choose to be affiliated with those efforts, and instead pick as our preferred partner the Chinese military and a Chinese company?” asked Attaran, who has a doctorate in immunology from Oxford University. “This vaccine candidate is nothing but a dead man walking now.”
Gary Kobinger, a Laval University professor who famously helped develop an Ebola vaccine and treatment while at Canada’s National Microbiology Lab, said he actually applauds the government for ignoring politics and working with China. But the phase 1 results suggest Cansino’s vaccine is not the one to bet on, he said.
“There are a lot of challenges this vaccine platform will face … This will be a little bit like winning the lottery to get this to the end,” he said. “That’s why I’m a bit at a loss about this. I still don’t understand: how did that work? What was the decision mechanism to invest in this?”
Others argue that Cansino’s product — called Ad5-ncov — seems to have at least some potential, and that even an imperfect vaccine is better than none.
What was the decision mechanism to invest in this?
“You can raise issues, less with safety than with efficacy, with most of the vaccines that are under development,” said Dr. Allison Mcgeer, a Toronto-based infectious disease specialist who critiqued the trial results in The Lancet journal. “This one makes sense as much as anything else.”
Cansino could not be reached for comment.
Trudeau announced May 12 that Canada had struck an agreement with the Tianjinbased firm to conduct another phase 1 trial, which essentially measures whether the vaccine is safe and generates an immune response, followed if successful by phase 2 and 3 trials here.
The government refuses to reveal how much it’s spending on the studies, to be overseen by Dalhousie University’s Canadian Centre for Vaccinology. Particulars of the Cansino deal are shielded by “commercial confidentiality,” said Hans Parmar, an Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada spokesman. But Ottawa has committed $1 billion to COVID-19 research generally.