Health Canada is set to complete assessments of the Novavax and Medicago COVID-19 vaccines “in the coming weeks”, according to the agency’s deputy minister.
“The management teams dedicated to Health Canada for each submission are working very hard. They depend on information from the companies to complete those assessments, but we expect to make a decision on both vaccines in the coming weeks,” said Deputy Health Minister Stephen Lucas. , faced questions from MPs at the House Health Committee on Tuesday. .
If approved by federal regulators, these vaccines will become the first COVID-19 vaccines to be manufactured in Canada.
Although Novavax is a Maryland-based company, in February 2021 – facing pressure on Canada’s depleted domestic vaccine production capacity – the federal government signed an agreement with Novavax to manufactures the COVID-19 vaccine at a new facility in Montreal. That facility opened this summer, with the aim of producing a vaccine in early 2022. Health Canada has been reviewing Novavax’s protein-based COVID-19 vaccine since January 2021.
Medicago, headquartered in Quebec, has had its COVID-19 vaccine under review by Health Canada from April 2021. The federal government has committed $173 million to the COVID-19 vaccine candidate. -19 is plant-based and eventually Canada manufactures this vaccine in Quebec City.
NDP MP Don Davies and Conservative MP Ryan Williams both asked about the status of these assessments at Tuesday’s meeting citing an interest in having options relevant to Canada as well as other proposals. to address vaccine hesitancy.
The government has contracts that guarantee up to 76 million doses of each of the Medicago and Novavax vaccines, if they are required.
When asked at the meeting how soon Canada could produce a COVID-19 vaccine, Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos could not provide an answer.
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