Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Good afternoon. I'm honoured to be speaking with you today as one of the co-chairs of the COVID-19 vaccine task force. I know that I speak for my colleague, Mark Lievonen, and all members of the task force when I say that we've been very privileged to be able to serve in this way during this pandemic.
We were also honoured to speak with your colleagues on the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology on February 18, and I also presented at the Standing Committee on Health on February 26.
I'll start off by speaking briefly about our work on vaccines before turning the floor over to my co-chair, Mark, who will talk about the work we've been doing on biomanufacturing.
The task force includes 10 external-to-government members and four ex-officio members who are senior public servants. We are from various fields, including immunology, vaccinology, vaccine development, biomanufacturing and commercialization. We all serve as volunteers, of course. Our overarching mission is to provide the best scientific advice, based on available evidence, to government, with the goal of securing safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines for Canadians as quickly as possible. This has been our overarching mission.
While each of us has taken on a substantial commitment to serve the government in this way, we do not make decisions. This is the purview of ministers, notably the Minister of Health, the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry to whom we report and send our advice, and the Minister of Public Services and Procurement.
Overall, the task force recommended a portfolio approach to procure vaccines, balancing different technology platforms to increase our chances of securing a safe and effective vaccine, and to mitigate the risk of some candidates not making it through to commercialization or the risk of supply chain disruptions—which we anticipated from the very beginning—which might result in production or delivery delays.
When we started our work in June of last year, we felt, after a review of all the evidence, that the international vaccine candidates were significantly more advanced in their development and that they presented the most viable option for meeting this overarching goal of getting safe and effective vaccines into Canada as quickly as possible. This is reflected in Canada's procurement strategy.
We were also impressed with several of the domestic vaccine candidates being developed and were able to recommend different options for support, 10 of which have been announced by the government.
Currently, the government has entered into advanced purchase agreements with seven firms. Of these vaccine candidates, four have received authorization from Health Canada for use in Canada, and three are currently in use.
I'll now turn the floor over to Mark, who will speak about our work related to biomanufacturing advice.