Government Operations Committee on May 5th, 2021

[Mark Lievonen]

Mr. Chair, I could take that question.

Yes, we looked at it. As Joanne said, we were looking to provide advice on securing safe and efficacious vaccines for Canadians as soon as possible. We looked at domestic and international candidates, and we took all of that into consideration. It became fairly clear early on that the fastest vaccines for Canadians were going to be the international candidates. While we provided support for SIFPs, strategic investment fund proposals, to encourage and support the Canadian industry, it was fairly clear to us early on that the leading candidates would be the international ones. That, of course, turned out to be the case.

[Patrick Weiler, Liberal, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC]

There is one thing I'd like to know a little bit more about. What was the research and data that went into choosing the seven vaccine candidates and the approved vaccines that were decided upon?

In your opinion, is there sufficient data to make informed decisions to move ahead with those seven vaccines and vaccine candidates given all of the potential different ones that were investigated?

[Mark Lievonen]

If you look at the task that was given to us—and we all certainly embraced it—you see that it was quite monumental. Here we were to provide advice on securing vaccines that did not exist yet. They were not licensed; they were still in the clinical trial stage. We reviewed a lot of companies and a lot of vaccine candidates. I think there were over 200 that we had some data on. We whittled that list down, as a task force, into those that we thought were of primary interest. We invited a number of those companies in to present to us and we had a back and forth....

As Joanne said in her opening comments, the capabilities of the people on this task force, I would say, are second to none in the world. When we engaged in debate and discussion with the companies, we were able to get, as best we could, to the heart of the data.

If you look back, you'll see that we recommended procuring vaccines before they were actually licensed in Canada. As for the seven vaccines that we recommended, none of them had even been approved and none had finished clinical trials. If we look at where we are now the, we see that the first four vaccines were all vaccines that we recommended. So far, it's four for four.

[Patrick Weiler, Liberal, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC]

That's a pretty good record to have.

Mr. Lievonen, you mentioned one thing earlier that leads to my next question.

What role did the task force have in advising where we might have promising therapeutics? I know that we have one of the world's leading COVID therapies that's been developed and now being manufactured out of Canada.

[Mark Lievonen]

We are the vaccine task force. There's also a therapeutics task force, and they were charged with looking at that and coming up with a therapeutic strategy. Where the two overlapped in terms of biomanufacturing, we formed a joint biomanufacturing subcommittee, which I chaired. Joanne was on it, as were the two co-chairs of the therapeutics task force and various other members of the vaccine and therapeutics task forces.

We came together in the biomanufacturing area and on recommendations for biomanufacturing for both vaccines and therapeutics because of the similarities among them.

[The Chair, Conservative, Robert Gordon Kitchen]

Thank you, Doctor Lievonen.

We'll now go to Ms. Vignola for six minutes.

[Julie Vignola, Bloc, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Thank you very much.

I welcome our three witnesses and thank them for being here.

Ms. Langley, in the newspapers over the last few months, we have seen that Canada is the only country in the G7, but not in the G20 or the world, that drew from the COVAX bank.

Is this the case?

[Dr. Joanne Langley]

The vaccine task force looked at the recommendations for our involvement in COVAX—the facility to improve vaccine access around the world—to which Canada has committed quite a lot of funding.

On your question about whether we are the only country, I wouldn't be the expert on that. We have made recommendations—

[Julie Vignola, Bloc, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

I'm talking about G7 countries.

[Dr. Joanne Langley]

Sorry?

[Julie Vignola, Bloc, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Canada is the only G7 country to do this, but not the only country in the world.

[Dr. Joanne Langley]

In the G7. I believe you are correct that that is the case.

Roger, am I correct with that?

[Roger Scott-Douglas]

In the G7, I think is correct.

There are two streams in the COVAX. One is for self-financing, which we were a part of. We've also contributed for other countries that are unable to pay for their own vaccines. Canada has been a major contributor there. We didn't draw from that pool; we drew from the self-financing pool.

[Julie Vignola, Bloc, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Thank you.

The Minister of Public Services and Procurement said that if Canada gets too many doses, it will redistribute some to disadvantaged countries that may not be able to afford a first dose. Indeed, the numbers show that Canada has far more doses than are needed per capita, at least if you include doses that have been ordered.

Why are we dipping into the COVAX bank if we already know we are likely to redistribute doses to other countries?

[Dr. Joanne Langley]

The strategy during a pandemic is to go into these decisions knowing that you're at risk, that some, or even all, of the vaccine platforms might not pan out. The reason for procuring, or recommending to procure, different platforms is that any one, or two, or maybe even three of those platforms, when they move into clinical trials, might not be safe, or they might not be effective. Therefore, we recommended really over-procurement, knowing that maybe only one would work, in which case we would have enough for every Canadian to be vaccinated adequately.

From the very beginning, there was always discussion that given that we were potentially in a situation of having too many vaccines, we would want to use those for the benefit of others. That was always part of the thinking, but it was difficult to say that back in June, because we had no idea that we would be in a situation where so many have succeeded.

[Julie Vignola, Bloc, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Thank you.

Medicago is building its factory on d'Estimauville Avenue, which is near my office. This plant is expected to open in 2024 at the latest. It could even be earlier, but that depends on the 56 million doses potentially ordered by the Canadian government.

Why are these 56 million doses potential, not confirmed?

[Dr. Joanne Langley]

The final authorization is when it's approved by Health Canada. All of the procurements have in them a clause that if the vaccine is never approved, we would not be using it for Canadians.

[Roger Scott-Douglas]

Chair, I might just add briefly to Joanne's point that the Government of Canada has signed an advance purchase agreement with Medicago, so there's a commitment to doing it if it does get the Health Canada approval that Joanne talked about.

[Julie Vignola, Bloc, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Thank you.

Currently, reform is being implemented at PMPRB.

In your opinion, what impact will this reform have on future production capabilities and Canada's desire to have pharmaceuticals come into the country to participate in the research movement?

[Dr. Joanne Langley]

I'm not sure what the CMB is. I want to be sure we understand that.

It might be better for Mark to answer that.

[Mark Lievonen]

I'd be happy to, but could you restate the beginning of the question for me, please? It might have been lost in translation. I'm not sure.

[Julie Vignola, Bloc, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

I'm sorry, I don't know the acronym in English, but in French it's the Conseil d'examen du prix des médicaments brevetés, or CEPMB [Patented Medicine Prices Review Board, or PMPRB]. What will be the impact of the PMPRB reform?

[Mark Lievonen]

As to the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board, yes, there is, as I understand it, ongoing review of that. Dealing with PMPRB, the pricing issues and so on was not part of the work of the vaccine task force; that did not enter into our discussions.

In terms of the advice that we gave and the negotiations between the government and the individual companies, any issues related to pricing and any authorizations under PMPRB would have been part of discussions between those two groups.

[The Chair, Conservative, Robert Gordon Kitchen]

Thank you, Doctor and Ms. Vignola.

We'll now go to Mr. Green for six minutes.

[Matthew Green, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

Thank you.

I want to pick up on the idea of patents. We've heard that the Biden administration has finally come on board. It looks like they're going to be supporting a TRIPS waiver, a waiver on patents internationally. I'm wondering what considerations your advisory group had on the possibility of patent waivers. How did you account for that in your potential planning in terms of market availability and supply curves?