OTTAWA -- The federal government has inked a new deal with French multinational pharmaceutical firm Sanofi to obtain 72 million doses of its protein-based COVID-19 vaccine candidate.
Procurement Minister Anita Anand also said Tuesday that Canada is in line to secure up to 150,000 vials of Gilead Sciences and McKeeson Canada’s antiviral drug remdesivir, to treat the virus.
To date, Canada has allocated $1 billion to vaccine procurement, which translates to a minimum of 154 million doses of a future vaccine. Deals have already been signed with Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, and Novavax.
To be approved for use, any potential vaccine must move through a well-established testing process that involves three phases of clinical trials. The first and second phases focus on monitoring whether the drug produces the desired response from the human immune system. The third phase involves far more test subjects and aims to determine whether the vaccine candidate is actually able to stop the virus from infecting a body.
Sanofi and its partner GlaxoSmithKline, providing adjuvant technology, entered into Phase 1 and 2 of clinical trials in early September with 400 participants. Pending results, the company will move into Phase 3 by the end of 2020.
None of the above candidates have been approved by Health Canada.
"These vaccine contracts ensure that Canada has access to the three main types of vaccine candidates known as mRNA, protein subunit, and viral vector. Having a diverse portfolio of vaccines from multiple supply sources will provide assured access to safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines when they become available," said the minister.
Anand has indicated that the government is also in talks with British multinational pharmaceutical AstraZeneca, which at one point was poised to have the most promising candidate until trials were halted in early September when a volunteer showed side effects. The company has since announced it was resuming trials.
At the same time, Canada is finalizing the details of its partnership with COVAX Facility, an international alliance to advance COVID-19 tests and vaccines co-lead by Gavi, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations and The World Health Organization.
Prior to Tuesday’s announcement, the government had kept vaccine spending under wraps, citing a concern about maintaining competitiveness in future negotiations.
Asked why the approach has seemingly changed, Anand said "what we’ve done today is to take an aggregate number of funds expended on the base number of doses across five contracts so as not to undermine potential negotiations moving forward."
She added that the government has confidentiality agreements with a number of suppliers, which is why more specific contractual detail hasn’t been released.
"I want to highlight how complex these negotiations are and how sensitive the data are in terms of our procurements but we did want to come forward with an aggregate amount today."
Contracts have also been penned with SiO2 for orders of vials and syringes to fill 80 million doses.
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMihAFodHRwczovL3d3dy5jdHZuZXdzLmNhL3BvbGl0aWNzL2NhbmFkYS1zaWducy1kZWFscy1mb3Itc3VwcGx5LW9mLXNhbm9maS12YWNjaW5lLWNhbmRpZGF0ZS1hbnRpdmlyYWwtZHJ1Zy10by10cmVhdC1jb3ZpZC0xOS0xLjUxMTQ5MjfSAUJodHRwczovL2JldGEuY3R2bmV3cy5jYS9uYXRpb25hbC9wb2xpdGljcy8yMDIwLzkvMjIvMV81MTE0OTI3Lmh0bWw?oc=5
2020-09-22 16:08:00Z
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