Company picked by Ottawa to produce made-in-Canada vaccines warns it may go out of business

The federal Liberal government's COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing policy is facing yet another challenge after Maryland-based Novavax announced late Tuesday it may not have enough cash in a year's time to stay in business.

That means three pillars of the government's made-in-Canada COVID-19 vaccine procurement strategy have failed or could soon fail.

In addition to this new hiccup with cash-strapped Novavax, there was the doomed deal with China-based CanSino and a major investment in the now-defunct Medicago.

The government did, however, successfully procure tens of millions of COVID-19 doses from foreign companies like Pfizer and Moderna, firms that supplied highly effective shots that have saved an untold number of Canadians from severe outcomes and death.

The government has long promised it will produce Novavax's COVID-19 vaccine at the National Research Council (NRC) Royalmount site in Montreal — a publicly owned facility in a country that has seen vaccine production all but disappear after decades of mismanagement and changing economics.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in 2020, at the height of the pandemic, that the country would produce Canadian-made shots at a new purpose-built facility at Royalmount by the end of that year. That never happened after a plan to work with CanSino fell through.

Then, in early 2021, Trudeau announced the partnership with Novavax, saying the NRC's biologics manufacturing centre would churn out the U.S. company's COVID-19 shot by "mid-2021." The plan was billed as a way to lessen Canada's dependence on foreign sources of shots.

As CBC News has previously reported, the NRC plant still hasn't produced a single vial of the Novavax vaccine.

While the biologics centre is built and Health Canada has authorized the Novavax shot for use in Canada, the NRC site still isn't producing vaccines at scale — the complex regulatory and scientific process hasn't been completed on the government's ambitious timeline.

WATCH: Canada still without vaccine plant despite federal promises

Novavax's warning Tuesday that it has "substantial doubt" about its ability to stay in business after the next year could derail the federal government's plan entirely.

"While our current cash flow forecast for the one-year going concern, look-forward period estimates that we have sufficient capital available to fund operations, this forecast is subject to significant uncertainty, including as it relates to 2023 revenue, funding from the U.S. government, and pending arbitration," Novavax said in a statement while releasing its fourth-quarter results.

"Given these uncertainties, substantial doubt exists regarding our ability to continue as a going concern through one year from the date that these financial statements are issued," the company said.

In an interview with Reuters after announcing the financial results, the company's CEO said the company has been spending at a "hot rate," and it plans to cut back — including possible job cuts.