Good afternoon, Mr. Chair, and thank you for the opportunity to appear before the committee today.
I appreciate this opportunity to highlight how Health Canada has been using agile regulatory processes to expedite the access to COVID-19 vaccines while maintaining high standards for safety, efficacy and quality.
My name is Dr. Supriya Sharma, and I am the chief medical adviser at Health Canada and also the senior medical adviser at Health Canada's health products and food branch.
I want to begin by saying that, since the beginning of the pandemic, our fundamental priority has been to ensure that nimble and timely processes are in place to review applications for clinical trials as well as submissions for authorizing COVID-19 treatments and vaccines.
In particular, we recognize the vital importance of vaccines in Canada’s pandemic response and our fight against COVID-19. Since the start of the pandemic, Health Canada has worked closely with other departments and the Vaccine Task Force on vaccines against COVID-19—