How the World Health Organization helped kill a promising made-in-Canada vaccine
CTV
The World Health Organization championed the need for out-of-the-box thinking, but when faced with that very situation, it evoked a 2005 policy, and sentenced a promising made-in-Canada vaccine to death because of a minority link with a tobacco company.
In a pandemic, a sizable amount of flexibility is required.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has championed the need for out-of-the-box thinking on vaccine production and supplies to protect the world.
But when faced with that very situation, the WHO evoked a 2005 policy, and sentenced a promising made-in-Canada vaccine to a tragic death because of a minority link with a tobacco company.
“I think the WHO has gone totally off the rails,” said David Sweanor, a lawyer, long-time anti-tobacco advocate and associate professor of law at the University of Ottawa.
“If the World Health Organization is standing in the way of vaccines to treat an epidemic, what does that do to their long-term credibility?”
A year ago, officials with the agency refused to endorse a vaccine made by Quebec-based Medicago. It used a plant related to tobacco as the "factory" to produce virus-like particles that taught the immune system to fend off the virus that causes COVID-19.
Health Canada approved the vaccine Covifenz in February of last year, after studies showed two doses were 71 per cent effective in protecting adults 18 to 64 against COVID-19 infection and disease. The vaccine was 70 per cent effective against Omicron.
