Canada-China Relations Committee on March 11th, 2021

[The Chair, Liberal, Geoff Regan]

I call this meeting back to order.

I'd like to welcome Dr. Scott Halperin, who is appearing as an individual.

Dr. Scott Halperin is a professor of pediatrics and microbiology and immunology at Dalhousie University, a university I know well. He's also a director of the Canadian Center for Vaccinology.

Thank you for being here tonight.

You have five minutes to make your opening remarks.

[Dr. Scott Halperin, Professor of Pediatrics and Microbiology & Immunology, Dalhousie University and Director, Canadian Center for Vaccinology, As an Individual]

Thank you very much for the invitation to speak to the committee.

In addition to those descriptions of what I do, I am the nominated principal or co-principal investigator for two national networks relevant to vaccine research. The first is IMPACT, which is the Immunization Monitoring Program, Active. It is a Public Health Agency of Canada funded surveillance network administered at 12 of the country's pediatric tertiary care hospitals, and undertakes surveillance for selected vaccine preventable, or soon to be vaccine preventable, infectious diseases and adverse events following immunization severe enough to require hospitalization.

The second network is the Canadian Immunization Research Network, CIRN. CIRN organizes a network of networks that comprises eight subnetworks and does a broad range of vaccine-related surveillance and research. One of these subnetworks is the Clinical Trials Network, which has been involved in clinical trials related to candidate COVID-19 vaccines.

My experience related to this committee's mandate on Canadian and Chinese relations is restricted to a collaboration with a single Chinese manufacturer of a candidate COVID-19 vaccine. This is what I will describe, since I imagine that's the reason I was asked to present to the committee.

In mid-March 2020, exactly one year ago this week, I was asked to join a meeting with the National Research Council and CanSino Biologics about my centre, the Canadian Center for Vaccinology, or CCFV, and our network, CIRN, partnering with NRC and CanSino to undertake a phase one clinical trial in Canada for their adenovirus vectored COVID-19 vaccine candidate.

This vaccine had just finished enrolment of a phase one study in China, and preliminary safety information was soon going to be available. There was a plan to undertake a second follow-on phase one study in Canada to expand information generated from the first phase one trial, and to continue with the development of the vaccine in Canada following a meeting scheduled with Health Canada regulatory authorities.

The plan was, if the vaccine was demonstrated to be safe and effective by Canadian regulatory authorities, it would be manufactured in the NRC's facility in sufficient quantities to contribute to Canada's vaccine needs. A meeting with Health Canada regulators, NRC, CanSino and CCFV took place at the end of March and guidance around the design of that phase one study was received. A protocol for the phase one study was developed and, several weeks later in a follow-up meeting with Health Canada, further guidance was obtained. Based on that meeting, further modifications to the protocol were undertaken and the protocol was approved on May 15.

Arrangements were then made for the vaccine to be shipped from China to Halifax, where CCFV is located, on May 19. The vaccine moved from the company in China to the airport to be stored in a secure, temperature-controlled facility awaiting clearance for one of the flights that took place several times a week, at that time, from China to Toronto.

Over the next several weeks we were told which flights it would be on and then told the vaccine had not made it onto the flights because of lacking customs clearance. During this period, CanSino executives met with various Chinese government officials to determine what the problem was and what had to be done to get the approvals needed for exporting the vaccine from China. They were told various things and about various forms they were supposed to complete. They continued to complete whatever paperwork they were asked to provide.

Weeks later, in June, they were told that the Chinese government was setting up a new committee to review and approve any vaccines shipped out of the country, and that CanSino's approvals would be part of this new process that was going to be used for all vaccines from any company in China.

They continued to meet with government officials, but were not able to find out what the delay was. We were assured by the company that the delay was not political in nature, but rather was bureaucratic. Because of these delays, the phase one trial that we had been planning was becoming increasingly irrelevant as by this time, later in June and July, phase two trial data became available from studies that were being done in China.

While we were continuing to work on getting vaccines shipped to Canada, we assisted in the design of their phase three clinical trial, which would evaluate the efficacy of the vaccine. This phase three trial was planned for multiple countries around the world in which the rates of COVID-19 disease were high. These sites—

[The Chair, Liberal, Geoff Regan]

Doctor, forgive me, but I have to stop you because we're at the five-minute point and I have to get to members for their questions. I'm guessing there will be an opportunity through those questions for you to complete your thoughts. I'm sorry about that.

We now begin the first round.

Mr. Paul-Hus, you have the floor for the next six minutes.

[Pierre Paul-Hus, Conservative, Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Dr. Halperin, your testimony has been very interesting so far. I would like to know... Can you hear me well, Dr. Halperin?

[The Chair, Liberal, Geoff Regan]

I can hear you well.

Dr. Halperin, do you have a problem hearing Mr. Paul-Hus? Do you have the interpretation, Dr. Halperin?

[Dr. Scott Halperin]

I do now. I had it on before, but I guess when I logged back in it didn't come back.

[The Chair, Liberal, Geoff Regan]

Mr. Paul-Hus, please start again.

[Pierre Paul-Hus, Conservative, Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC]

I'll start again.

Thank you, Dr. Halperin, for the information you have given us, which was very important to us.

My questions now concern dates. As of June 28, 2020, CanSino Biologics has had its vaccine approved in China for military use.

Were you informed, at the end of June, that the Chinese army was in contact with CanSino Biologics?

[Dr. Scott Halperin]

Yes, I was informed that the vaccine was going to be for emergency use authorization prior to the end of the clinical trials we were planning by the Chinese military.

[Pierre Paul-Hus, Conservative, Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC]

We are trying to understand the situation. You mentioned in your speech that it was not a political decision to prevent vaccines from being sent to Canada. However, we can see that, through the army, the Chinese government was in direct contact with CanSino Biologics. On June 29, they vaccinated—and thus protected—entire units of Chinese soldiers deployed in certain areas, while we were left without any assistance.

Were you surprised to learn that this was their way of doing things at that time?

[Dr. Scott Halperin]

I think those were two different issues. One was that we were attempting to get the vaccine in order to do clinical trials to obtain more information about the use of those vaccines. As you're aware, before those vaccines could be used for emergency use and in the general population, they would need to go through phase one, phase two and phase three studies before emergency authorization would be approved for the general population, certainly in Canada and elsewhere.

We're definitely surprised any time a vaccine is authorized for use before any of those data are available, whether that be in China or.... We were similarly surprised when that occurred in Russia with the Russian vaccine, which was also authorized for general usage after only phase two studies, before phase three studies had even begun.

[Pierre Paul-Hus, Conservative, Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC]

We are currently conducting a national security review. I would like to know if, when you were put in touch with CanSino Biologics, any national security agencies in Canada provided you with information regarding possible links between CanSino Biologics and the Chinese government.

[Dr. Scott Halperin]

When we started having discussions with CanSino, they were with NRC, the National Research Council, and CanSino. Our interactions were with the company, which was in the business of undertaking clinical trials to show the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine. The interaction between that company and the government was not really an issue that I was looking at.

[Pierre Paul-Hus, Conservative, Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC]

You know that the founders of CanSino Biologics were recognized as part of what is called the Thousand Talents Plan. Were you aware of this connection to the founders of CanSino Biologics?

[Dr. Scott Halperin]

No, I was not aware of that program. I was aware that the founders had previously worked in Canada at Sanofi Pasteur and had then gone back to China to start that company, but I was not aware of their program.

[Pierre Paul-Hus, Conservative, Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC]

I want to make sure I understand what you said at the beginning. You mentioned that you were informed, on May 15, 2020, that there would be no shipments of CanSino Biologics products to Canada. Is that correct?

[Dr. Scott Halperin]

No, that's not correct. I was informed that the shipment scheduled for that day was not coming, but not that vaccines.... It wasn't until August that we found there would not be shipments of vaccine to Canada. Up until that point, the dates of scheduling them kept rolling back and back and back, until finally the vaccine had to be shipped back from the airport to the company while they continued to try to get the process for release of them through customs. It wasn't until August that we finally decided, based on the fact that shipments had gone to other countries, that it was a unique problem of shipping to Canada, not just exporting. Once we saw that the vaccines were shipped for the phase three studies to Pakistan, that suggested it was a political issue.

[The Chair, Liberal, Geoff Regan]

Thank you very much.

Thank you very much, Mr. Paul-Hus.

Now we'll go to Ms. Zann for six minutes, please.

[Lenore Zann, Liberal, Cumberland—Colchester, NS]

Thank you very much.

Welcome, Dr. Halperin. It's so nice to have you here at our committee. I'm coming to you from Truro, the unceded territory of the Mi'kmaq. As a proud Nova Scotian, I'm really happy to have you here in your capacity as the director of the Canadian Center for Vaccinology. Of course, the agricultural campus of Dalhousie is in Truro.

As you know, global partners have come together to learn about COVID-19 and do research about the factors of transmissibility, for instance, and new variants of concern and the lasting effects. Could you tell us, please, about that collaboration and why it's so important to have a global response to infectious diseases such as COVID-19?

[Dr. Scott Halperin]

It's very important. It's a truism, albeit a worn-out truism, that viruses don't respect borders. We really need to have collaboration so that when variants become apparent in any jurisdiction anywhere in the world, they're very quickly shared so they can be sequenced. If revised vaccines need to be made, it needs to be done very quickly.

There's an incredible amount of data sharing and material sharing around the world that we didn't see 10 or 20 years ago with previous pandemics, including the routine influenza pandemics. I think it's incredibly important to have that type of collaboration around the world to make sure that we have very early warnings so that we can develop interventions that are effective.

[Lenore Zann, Liberal, Cumberland—Colchester, NS]

There's a lot of disinformation about vaccines, as you know, that may cause some Canadians to be hesitant about getting vaccinated. Can you tell us more about the work that goes into evaluating vaccine candidates for use in Canada, and expand a bit on the COVID-19 vaccines and why they're safe and effective?

[Dr. Scott Halperin]

Canada has one of the most rigorous regulatory authorities in the world. Any vaccine, before it gets to widespread use in a population, has to undergo a series of clinical trials—phase one, phase two and phase three studies with an increasing number of people in them—that look for safety and efficacy.

Prior to being released, they need to be studied in thousands of people. These current COVID trials have had over 30,000 to 40,000 people in all of them before they get to the point of emergency authorization. Even at that stage, a study of 30,000 or 40,000 is not going to detect adverse events that occur in more than one in 1,000 people. If one wants to assure the safety, even for more rare adverse events, one needs to have post-use surveillance within the country. Canada has developed a very rigorous augmented surveillance system in order to look at COVID-19 vaccines as these vaccine programs roll out.

Safety is one of the most important things people are concerned about in terms of hesitancy. People are hesitant for a variety of reasons, and that's normal and expected. We want people to want to know about the vaccines before they receive them. We need to be able to provide them with the type of information they need, while considering how they want the information and from whom they want the information, in order to make sure we get the highest rates of vaccine uptake.

[Lenore Zann, Liberal, Cumberland—Colchester, NS]

Thank you. Honestly, I'm very proud of your work.

I'm probably going to get cut off any second here, but do you have a second to talk about your research on immunity, particularly in the long term?

[Dr. Scott Halperin]

That's one of the most important issues we're facing now. These vaccines were authorized for emergency use with information from up to about three months. Obviously, we want a vaccine that lasts longer. There's a lot of work that's now ongoing to look at duration of protection and what we call vaccine effectiveness, as we're rolling them out in the real world situation. We are monitoring for vaccine effectiveness over time, so we can look at the durability of the immune response, as well as the immune response to the variants that are emerging.

[Lenore Zann, Liberal, Cumberland—Colchester, NS]

Again, I want to say that I'm very proud of the work you're doing.

I think that here in Nova Scotia we've done a great job of looking after people so that nobody is getting COVID, or very few are. Here in the northern district, we've been very lucky. As well, in our long-term care homes, nobody has gotten COVID that we know of. They were very good at locking down the homes at the very beginning of the pandemic, and they've continued to make sure nobody comes in and makes people sick.

I also wanted to mention Dr. Alice Aiken, who I posted about for International Women's Day. She is one of your colleagues, and I think she's done incredible work as well. What kind of security briefings, if any, are the Canadian Center for Vaccinology scientists receiving regarding foreign threats to sensitive intellectual property that they create?