Advocacy

Questions Persist around Domestic Vaccine Manufacturing

Across Waterloo Region, Ontario and Canada, we have become increasingly focused on expanding our “knowledgebased” economy.

The knowledge economy is generally a system where the production of goods and services is based on knowledge intensive industries that contribute to a rapid pace of advancement in technical and scientific innovation as well as accelerated obsolescence. A 2017 Ernst & Young (EY) Canada report prepared for Innovative Medicines Canada, a major industry association, concluded that “innovative medicines are essential to the Canadian knowledge-based economy and for the better health of all Canadians.”

In late November 2020 as highly promising announcements were released and often repeated across the globe related to COVID-19 vaccines and the expectation for inoculations before the end of the calendar year, the unfortunate message originating from the federal government was that Canada would be a follower rather than a leader since vaccines will be imported.

At a November 24, 2020 media conference Prime Minister Trudeau indicated that “one of the things to remember is Canada no longer has any domestic production capacity for vaccines. Countries like the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom do have domestic pharmaceutical facilities which is why they’re obviously going to prioritize helping their citizens first.”

The question subsequently asked across media, government and business settings within Canada is why Group of Seven (G7) member Canada is apparently behind our economic competitors in the vaccine and medical innovation race.

Andrew Coyne, who also regularly appears on CBC, wrote in The Globe and Mail during late November that the narrative on vaccines has gone from bad procurement practices by the federal government to the “why can’t Canada make cool things” approach to Canadian health care.

Coyne claims that Canada does in fact have capacity for manufacturing vaccines – but not the type used for COVID-19 which generally did not exist until about five minutes ago. The premise is not just that governments and Canadian manufacturers should have maintained that capacity to make tens of millions of vaccines domestically on the off chance that a historical pandemic would arrive. The premise is conversely that spare capacity should have been established in anticipation of technologies not yet invented.

Noubar Afeyan, co-founder and chairman of leading and successful vaccine developer Moderna stated on a recent CBC News interview that Canada is “not at the back of the line” and since we were among the first to pre-order when effectiveness was far from certain, overall the nation is adequately lined up for early immunizations.

Earl Brown, an infectious disease expert and former member of an H1N1 vaccine task group, informed CTV News that Canada had world leading vaccine producers fifty years ago. The problem was they all operated under a bad business model as vaccine companies were spun off from universities and did not generate heavy profits. Many manufacturers were sold to multinationals and current operations now have restricted production lines with limited capacity. Furthermore, Brown noted there are promising vaccine candidates in Canada who simply do not possess the capacity to manufacture significant volumes domestically.

Amir Attaran, a professor at the University of Ottawa School of Public Health and Faculty of Law, indicated that while Canada does not possess the capability to mass-produce vaccines, we could supply vulnerable populations and health care workers.

“We are going to end up being months later getting the vaccine to Canada in large part because the federal government failed to do the obvious thing, to license it as other countries have,” said Professor Attaran for a recent article in The Globe and Mail. He noted that even though the AstraZeneca vaccine has not been approved, India and Australia are already producing the product to have stockpiles in place when approval is granted.

The different vaccines under development require different technology and while Canada does not have the equipment for all vaccines, we do have the technology to manufacture the AstraZeneca product which can be stored at normal refrigeration temperatures.

In the final analysis Canadians simply want the vaccine when everyone else, most notably our American neighbours, obtains access.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Art Sinclair

Art is Vice President Policy and Advocacy for the Greater Kitchener Waterloo Chamber of Commerce.