Anita Anand, the Minister of Procurement of the Federal Government of Canada, revealed in response to a question in the House Industry Committee on February 4 local time that Canada had proposed to all manufacturers who developed a coronavirus vaccine in the summer of 2020 to set up factories to produce coronavirus vaccines in Canada. Please, but all of them were rejected.
Anand said that the Federal Procurement Department “has actively and repeatedly contacted leading vaccine manufacturers on this matter, and we are constantly discussing this issue with suppliers at the negotiating table to seek the possibility of their biopharmaceuticals, including vaccines, in Canada.
However, after the review, the relevant manufacturers concluded that Canada’s biopharmaceutical capacity is very limited enough to invest and set up factories. This was the case until the Canadian government signed contracts with these vaccine manufacturers before September 2020.
Canada has faced a vaccine shortage since Pfizer has reduced its coronavirus vaccine exports at the EU’s request.
Moderna, another major supplier of Canadian vaccines, was also unable to export vaccines to Canada as scheduled.
Earlier this week, Canada announced that Novavax had agreed to produce a coronavirus vaccine in Canada, but it will not be able to obtain a domestic vaccine until at least fall 2021.
