The agreement, announced Tuesday by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, is the first of a series to be developed as Canada says it plans to repatriate vaccine production in the coming decades.
“What we are very clear about is that Canada is going to develop domestic production, so no matter what may happen in the future, we will have domestic production on top of all of our partnerships and contracts signed with companies around the world,” said Trudeau during a press conference in Ottawa on Tuesday.
He added that it is important for Canada to be “self-sufficient” in the production of vaccines.
Novavax is still in clinical trials with its vaccine, but submitted more data to Health Canada on Friday. Canada has entered into an agreement to purchase 52 million doses of Novavax when and if its vaccine candidate receives Canadian approval.
No approval is expected for weeks and some domestic production of vaccines will take place in autumn at the earliest.
This leaves Canada with a significant shortage of vaccines in the short term. Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna are the only vaccines approved for use in Canada to date.
Both vaccine suppliers have significantly delayed deliveries to Canada following a combination of production delays and demands from Europe, where Canada buys its doses, to limit vaccine exports, subject to EU approval.
Canada has not attempted to withdraw vaccine doses from the US after the Trump administration indicated it would not allow vaccines to be exported.
According to public health data from the provinces and the federal government, just over 2% of the Canadian population has received at least 1 dose of a Covid-19 vaccine.
Provinces in Canada, responsible for vaccine distribution, are becoming increasingly frustrated that massive vaccination sites are ready, but in many cases “empty” await vaccine doses.
“They have a capacity of several thousand a day and the ability to get past that, so we’re all a little disappointed, a little frustrated and munching on the little bit of doing more and getting the vaccines with us,” said retired man General Rick Hillier, who now heads the Ontario vaccine task force.
He added that he has lost faith in Pfizer’s supply chain because the doses promised to Canada were not delivered.