The Prime Minister says that, the Government of Canada is actively pursuing the purchase and development of vaccines, treatments, and related supplies to protect Canadians from COVID-19 and support our recovery from the pandemic. Justin Trudeau says this includes strengthening our country’s bio-manufacturing sector and capabilities to fight future pandemics through leading-edge vaccine technology.
The Prime Minister has announced an investment of up to $173 million through the Strategic Innovation Fund in Quebec City-based Medicago. The project, valued at $428 million, is to advance Medicago’s virus-like particle vaccine. It will also establish a large-scale vaccine and antibody production facility.
The government has signed an agreement with Medicago to secure up to 76 million doses of their COVID-19 vaccine candidate, enough to vaccinate 38 million people. This is the first domestically developed vaccine candidate the Government of Canada has secured.
The government will also invest up to $18.2 million in Vancouver-based bio-technology company Precision NanoSystems. This investment will support a $24.27-million project to help advance the development of a COVID-19 vaccine candidate through pre-clinical studies and clinical trials. The government is also providing up to $23.2 million in funding through the National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program to advance six COVID-19 vaccine candidates in various stages of clinical trials.
Ottawa has now signed enough agreements to secure access to up to 358 million doses of different COVID-19 vaccine candidates. At this time, there are three candidates currently under review and others in clinical trials and in development.