Thank you, Mr. Chair; and thank you to the witnesses for being here today.
Folks, access to vaccines is top of mind for all Canadians. I believe in our strategy when it comes to domestic vaccines and therapies and our decision-making process and the supports that have been put in place to help Canadian companies working to find solutions to COVID-19.
Our government's objectives from the early days of the pandemic were actually threefold: to secure access to the leading international vaccine candidates; to invest in the most promising Canadian vaccine and therapies; and to make strategic investments to rebuild Canada's domestic biomanufacturing capacity.
Mr. Mitch Davies, my questions will be directed to you.
Our government invested over $23 million through the NRC industrial research assistance program to support Canadian companies responding to COVID-19. The NRC indicated that it was using this funding to provide advisory services and research and development funding to six companies for their COVID-19 vaccine candidates.
I have three questions, and please feel free to do a deep dive on the three of them. Number one, can you comment on the development status of any of these vaccine candidates? Number two, can you describe Canada's past and present pharmaceutical and bioproduction landscape? Number three, in your opinion, what does Canada need to do to rebuild, or build up, its pharmaceutical sector and bioproduction capacity to manage future variants and pathogens?