Foreign Affairs Committee on March 21st, 2022

[The Chair, Liberal, Sven Spengemann]

It is working now.

Go ahead, Mr. Genuis.

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

Thank you.

What proportion of the vaccines that Canada is giving away or contributing through COVAX are of a type that is not recommended in Canada?

[Joshua Tabah]

None of them is. We would only offer, through COVAX, vaccines that we had procured. That meant they had received regulatory approval from Health Canada, and also from the World Health Organization.

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

My question was not what proportion had not received regulatory approval; my question was what proportion was not recommended in Canada. For example, I understand that AstraZeneca is approved, but not recommended for use by Canadians.

[Joshua Tabah]

There would be other people better placed to speak about Canada's domestic strategy.

We have made AstraZeneca doses available through COVAX for donation. It is a dose that continues to be sought by some countries around the world, and we have recent information from COVAX that AstraZeneca has been allocated to countries that continue to use it as part of their national campaign.

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

Thank you.

Could you answer my first question?

[Joshua Tabah]

On the proportion...?

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

What proportion of Canada's COVAX contribution funds or distributes doses that are not recommended for use in Canada? That was my initial question.

[Joshua Tabah]

I can say that of the roughly 15 million doses that Canada has provided in kind, about five million have been Moderna and about 10 million have been AstraZeneca. I don't have the dose equivalents that COVAX has purchased and allocated from our financial contributions attributed down to specific vaccine types.

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

Okay. Thank you.

Of the in-kind vaccine contributions, two-thirds of what we're giving to other countries are of a vaccine type not recommended for use in Canada.

Do you have concerns about how that might be perceived?

[Joshua Tabah]

I don't have any concerns. The AstraZeneca doses were the first vaccines that Canada donated to the facility, and were made available from the manufacturer. It's natural that more of those were allocated initially.

We now see that—

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

Sorry to interrupt, but I have limited time here.

What proportion of the total vaccines distributed by the COVAX facility are of a type not recommended for use in Canada?

[Joshua Tabah]

An earlier question touched on the overall volume by name and delivery by COVAX. That information is publicly available. I don't have it at my fingertips, but I'm happy to make sure the committee has line of sight on all the vaccines allocated.

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

Thank you. Please provide it to us in writing.

My sense is that about 20% of the vaccines shipped through COVAX are Sinopharm or Sinovac from China, and they are not approved for distribution in Canada. Is that correct?

[Joshua Tabah]

Both of those received EUL, and were available from COVAX. I understand demand was low, so I can't confirm that, but that's the overall volume that was shipped. That will be part of the information we will share.

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

Thank you.

Mr. Tabah, can you comment on the use of so-called vaccine diplomacy by China, your observations around that, and the impact of that? There's some indication that the distribution of vaccines is being used as a strategic tool by the Government of China to, for instance, try to blunt human rights criticism.

Is this a phenomenon you're observing, and what is Canada doing to respond?

[Joshua Tabah]

Canada, like other G7 countries, is committed to ensure that there's an effective multilateral mechanism, so that countries have a choice when they are looking for a safe and effective vaccine. COVAX is now providing that.

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

I don't know if that was really an answer to my question.

Are you observing the use of vaccine diplomacy as a kind of geostrategic tool by the Government of China to blunt criticism around its human rights record?

I understand your objective is to give countries a choice, but are you seeing efforts being made along those lines?

[Joshua Tabah]

Multiple countries attempted to pair vaccine offers with a desire for influence earlier in the pandemic, when supply was scarce. Now that supply is abundant, we hope countries will continue to choose safe and effective vaccines, and that's what COVAX offers.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sven Spengemann]

Mr. Genuis, thank you very much.

Mr. Sarai, please go ahead, for five minutes.

[Randeep Sarai, Liberal, Surrey Centre, BC]

Mr. Ambassador, could you elaborate on some of the concerns of why the TRIPS waiver would not be an effective tool to actually increase supply and affordable supply for those countries seeking it?

Sometimes people think it's a very simple way to increase supply for developing countries and continents that have a challenge, and others don't realize why.

Can you elaborate on the challenges that have been discussed?

[Stephen de Boer]

With all due respect, please be aware that some of this is surmising since I am not an intellectual property expert, but the issue seems to be around timing, and particularly around the timing of the production of these vaccines.

I mentioned earlier that the director general of the WTO had a third way proposal, where she talked to industries about the issues they were facing with respect to vaccine production. None of them mentioned intellectual property as the problem. They talked about other issues, like inputs, for example, and actually having the technical expertise, and the people who could deliver on the manufacturing, particularly on the mRNA, which is quite complex. Supply chain predictability was another issue.

Some of the countries that are holding the IP, I would imagine, are thinking that they should probably be spending more time addressing those issues that have been identified as the real stumbling blocks to vaccine production.

There's a range of issues not related to the IP itself.

[Randeep Sarai, Liberal, Surrey Centre, BC]

Is Canada's strategy to increase doses to those countries needing them by funding COVAX, or is it also to use some of our domestic facilities that now have been created, or are being created, that may create supply right here in Canada to help supply those countries?

[Joshua Tabah]

I can take that one. I would say it's a multipronged approach whereby our support to COVAX is the primary mechanism to help end the acute phase of the pandemic right now, and that's by cash financing through grant agreements and through the provision of in-kind doses that are donated from Canadian surplus.

In addition, though, we are supporting more diversified manufacturing capacity, including in South Africa with an mRNA hub. As the ambassador mentioned, developing the capacity and infrastructure to produce mRNAs is highly complex. This is a COVAX-backed initiative with WHO as a key partner to work with a consortium of producers in South Africa to ensure that it becomes the initial South African capacity for that production.

Then, going forward, as Canada brings additional manufacturing capacity online through its biomanufacturing strategy, I think there is an expectation and a hope that it could play a role in addressing global vaccine demands.

[Randeep Sarai, Liberal, Surrey Centre, BC]

Quickly, how is the global world, either through COVAX or otherwise, dealing with vaccine hesitancy in the developing world?