Canada “is not in line” for the COVID-19 vaccine, says Moderna’s president

Afeyan said that because Canada was among the first countries to pre-order with Moderna, it is guaranteed that the country will receive a certain portion of the company’s initial batch of doses as long as the vaccine proves safe and effective and receives approval. legislation.

“People who were willing to relocate early with even less evidence of effectiveness ensured the amount of supply they were willing to sign up to,” Afeyan said in an interview on Rosemary Barton Live.

“Nothing that happened later can affect this.”

Moderna’s mRNA vaccine is currently in Phase 3 clinical trials and preliminary data released two weeks ago shows it appears to be 94.5% effective.

Millions of doses procured

On August 5, the federal government secured an agreement with Moderna for 20 million doses of its vaccine, with the possibility of procuring another 36 million doses. The US announced a deal for up to 500 million doses a few days later, while the UK and the European Union signed deals with Moderna in just the past two weeks.

In total, Canada purchased about 358 million doses from seven companies, the most per capita of any country in the world, according to research from Duke University’s Global Health Institute.

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Despite these promising news, the Liberal government has come under severe pressure this week to set a timeline for when Canadians will start getting inoculated as countries like the US, UK and Germany have all announced plans to start vaccinating their own. populations in December.

Opposition politicians and some premieres argued Canada was lagging behind other countries in its planning after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canadians would have to wait to get vaccinated because the first doses of any vaccine will go to people in countries where vaccines are produced.

Federal officials said Thursday that if all goes well up to three million Canadians – mostly those in “high priority groups” – could be vaccinated in early 2021. A day later, Trudeau said Canada is on track. way to vaccinate almost any person who wants a shot by September 2021.

But officials have given few details about the government’s plan to roll out a vaccine once Health Canada gives the green light.

Conservative criticisms

At a press conference on Sunday, Conservative leader Erin O’Toole reiterated her view that Canada is behind other countries in obtaining a vaccine.

“While the Americans and the British talk about mass vaccinations throughout December and January, our government is now talking about getting Canadians vaccinated by September,” O’Toole said.

“We need to show Canadians that there is a vaccine plan.”

O’Toole said the Trudeau government only turned its attention to pre-ordering tens of millions of vaccine doses from companies like Pfizer and Moderna in August, after its collaboration between the National Research Council and the Chinese vaccine manufacturer CanSino collapsed after months of delays.

“I wouldn’t have put all of our eggs in China’s basket,” O’Toole said.

Pending regulatory approval

Companies have reduced the time normally required to develop a vaccine by starting production of doses even before studies on their effectiveness are completed as part of a global effort to develop COVID-19 vaccines as quickly as possible to end the pandemic.

Moderna is in the process of applying for authorization for emergency use from the US Food and Drug Administration. Once the company obtains that authorization, Afeyan said it will begin shipping doses to countries that have placed pre-orders, including Canada.

Afeyan said he plans to start shipping the vaccine to Canada in the first quarter of 2021 and the amount of shipments is expected to increase during the second quarter and throughout the rest of the year.

The company expects to be able to produce a total of 20 million doses by the end of 2020 and between 500 million and 1 billion doses by 2021.

Moderna unveiled the first safety and preclinical data from Phase 1 and 2 studies with Health Canada last month as part of the regulator’s ongoing regulatory review process. Health Canada must approve any COVID-19 vaccine before it can be distributed to Canadians.

Experts say Moderna’s vaccine – which requires two shots taken 28 days apart – will be relatively easy to store and distribute because the vaccine can remain stable in normal refrigerator temperatures of 2C to 8C for 30 days. Conversely, another major candidate manufactured by US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer must be shipped and stored at -70 C.

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Health Minister Patty Hajdu said it is currently difficult to set a delivery date for a major vaccine candidate due to the long list of uncertainties stemming from unfinished clinical trials, ongoing regulatory reviews, and logistics and production challenges related to distribution. .

“We are all eager to get out of this mess as a world, but certainly also as a country,” said Hajdu.

“As a Canadian health minister, I remain focused on Canadians and our process, making sure that our delivery plans are well defined and that we have what we need in terms of being able to provide the variety of different types of vaccines. “

Hajdu added that his top priority is ensuring that Health Canada has what it needs to make sure the regulatory process goes smoothly so that all approved vaccines are safe and effective.