You point out opportunities where we could have done better, and this will be helpful in the future.
I think this indicates that a connection between the funded projects under development has been missing from the beginning. I am referring here to the models in Great Britain and the United States. It's no secret that in the case of projects that received a modest $1 million grant, for example, no one imagined that it would be possible to reach phase 3 of the study.
At present, there is no structure in place to provide more scientific support to particularly promising funded projects during their development and, if necessary, to put projects with more difficulties on hold. We know that funding is always limited, in the end. That's why Britain has decided to target the three most promising projects and to provide significant funding for each, in excess of $300 million if necessary. One of these projects produced a vaccine that is now licensed in more than 50 countries.
In Canada, the approach has been different. The money was kind of sprinkled around and there was no follow-up. I should point out that in our case, we are trying to develop a vaccine in a non-profit organization and 90% of the costs are cut. This vaccine is meant to be owned by Canadians, but there has been no follow-up. We also didn't have the same competitive opportunities because I was on the selection committee for the largest federal competition.