Quebec-based firm seeks volunteers for Canadian-made vaccine

Health Canada gives green light for final phase of human testing

A Canadian-made COVID-19 vaccine has reached the final stage of human testing — and the company behind it is looking for volunteers.

Medicago, a Quebec-based company, has developed a unique plant-based vaccine candidate.

On Tuesday, it announced it had received Health Canada approval to begin Phase 3 trials, which is the final round of testing before federal scientists can decide on authorization. That federal evaluation needs to happen before any vaccine can be approved for use in Canada.

This is the only vaccine developed in Canada that the federal government has pre-purchased. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced $173 million in funding for the company back in October, which would pay for as many as 76 million doses and help build a manufacturing plant in Quebec City.

It’s also the first vaccine to undergo a late-stage trial that is open to volunteers in this country. (Researchers also hope to run trial sites in 10 other countries.)

In other words, if you’re a healthy adult living in Canada who wants to play a role in advancing vaccine science, now could be your chance.

“We’re a Canadian-based company, we have a presence in Canada and the U.S., and the first contract we have is with the Canadian government,” said Nathalie Landry, Medicago’s executive vice-president of scientific and medical affairs.

“It makes sense to ask for participants in Canada based on these reasons.”

While Medicago has also been fast tracked for approval in the U.S., Landry confirmed that, if authorized, its first 20 million doses will go to Canadians.

While Medicago is the closest Canadian vaccine to the finish line, doses from Calgary’s Providence Therapeutics, the University of Saskatchewan’s Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization (VIDO) and VBI vaccines, which has an office in Ottawa, are all in the first stage of trials.

The company, which is also working with GlaxoSmithKline, is taking a different approach from other vaccine makers, using a cousin of a tobacco plant to grow tiny particles that mimic the coronavirus. Company spokespeople have said they’re using plants because they can scale up production faster.

The vaccine consists of two shots, given 21 days apart. The company has also begun an early study of a vaccine candidate targeted at the new variants.

Researchers are now looking for 30,000 volunteers and hope to include an ethnically and racially diverse group of healthy adults, adults with comorbidities and seniors.

The basic logic of a vaccine trial is simple — you give half your volunteers the vaccine, the other half a placebo, then wait to see which group ends up with more COVID-19 cases.

For this reason, most vaccine makers have chosen to run trials in places such as the U.S. or South America, where the virus has been circulating more quickly.

But Landry said given Medicago’s ties to Canada, it made sense to test the efficacy of the vaccine partially on Canadian volunteers.

The company is hoping to get about 2,000 volunteers here, at sites scattered across the country.

That leaves would-be volunteers with face a choice between volunteering for a trial or waiting for an already authorized vaccine dose.

Landry said the company is hoping to get some interest from healthy young adults who likely wouldn’t be vaccinated for a few months otherwise.

For ethical reasons, she said, if the vaccine proves successful, Medicago will vaccinate every person in the placebo group as soon as the trial is over.

If all goes well, Landry said, the company is hoping to have enough trial results by summer to submit for regulatory approval, with a decision from Health Canada potentially coming as early as September.

This is the only vaccine developed in Canada that the federal government has pre-purchased