Failed deal with China delayed made-in-Canada COVID-19 vaccine plans
CBC
The federal government's failed collaboration with a vaccine manufacturing company in China early in the pandemic has led to a delay of nearly two years in efforts to create a made-in-Canada COVID-19 vaccine.
Government documents obtained by The Fifth Estate show that Canadian officials wasted months waiting for a proposed vaccine to arrive from China for further testing and spent millions upgrading a production facility that never made a single dose of COVID-19 vaccine.
The National Research Council of Canada (NRC) signed an agreement with Tianjin-based CanSino Biologics in early May 2020 to "fast-track the availability of a COVID-19 vaccine in Canada for emergency pandemic use."
The CanSino vaccine, which had been created by the scientific research arm of China's military, was to be shipped to Canada for human trials that May. If successful, the vaccine was to be manufactured at a temporary facility in Montreal that the NRC had committed $44 million to upgrade.
The documents reveal that the NRC, the scientific research arm of the Canadian government, was gearing up for production of the vaccine — even before the contract was signed and human trials had started — estimating it could be manufacturing doses by summer 2020.
At first, the NRC would be producing doses for human trials in Canada, then later, according to the contract, "for front-line responders and Canadians as soon as they are available."
"Once fully operational, in the event that CanSino proceeds, NRC will be able to produce 70,000 to 100,000 doses per month," the NRC briefs said.
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