Thank you, Mr. Chair, for the invitation to speak to you today about the National Research Council's role as part of the Government of Canada's response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
I'd like to begin by acknowledging that NRC facilities are on the traditional unceded territories of many first nations, Inuit and Métis people. Their ancestral footsteps and rights extend beyond the boundaries that exist today, and we respectfully honour these peoples' rights, history and relationships with this land.
On the specific topic that's the subject of the committee's current study, I would like to address the NRC's role in the government's efforts to develop vaccines and therapeutics for Canadians, and to increase our country's domestic biomanufacturing capacity in the near and medium term.
The NRC is working with partners across government to advance research and development for vaccines and therapies to prevent and treat the spread of COVID-19 in line with the best advice provided by the Government of Canada's vaccine and therapeutics task forces. This includes the NRC's collaboration with VBI Vaccines, first announced in March 2020, to develop a vaccine targeting COVID-19 and related respiratory viruses.
The NRC is also supporting VIDO-InterVac at the University of Saskatchewan in the development and production of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate. Canada's support for VIDO-InterVac was among the first decisions made to support made-in-Canada vaccine projects.
Through the National Research Council's industrial research assistance program, we are working closely with made-in-Canada vaccine and therapeutics developers and providing more than $32 million to finance six of the most promising domestic vaccine candidates and four domestic therapeutics candidates to prevent and treat COVID-19.
In support of the government's effort to expand Canada's biomanufacturing capacity, the NRC is preparing to manufacture COVID-19 vaccines through the construction of a new "good manufacturing practices compliant" biologics manufacturing centre at our Royalmount site in Montreal. Once complete, the new biologics manufacturing centre will be capable of large quantity end-to-end production of vaccines, approximately two million doses per month, depending on the vaccine candidate.
I'm pleased to report construction of the new facility is on track for completion by the end of July 2021. The completion of technology transfer for specific vaccine and Health Canada approvals of both the facility and the vaccine and related manufacturing processes will then be the steps remaining to achieve production for use in Canada. To this end on February 2, the Prime Minister announced the signing of an MOU with Novavax to pursue the production of its COVID-19 vaccine at the NRC's biologics manufacturing centre. This is a significant milestone in this project, to be working with a vaccine producer with a product well advanced in the development process.
Finally, in support of Canada's biologics manufacturing capacity for research, the NRC is also building a permanent clinical trial material facility at our Royalmount site in Montreal. Once complete, this facility will be able to produce 500 litres of clinical trial materials per month to support future vaccine research and development in Canada.
Further to the work under way to assist in bringing vaccines and therapeutics to Canadians, I'd like to share specifics about the broader NRC contribution to deliver many other measures as part of the science, innovation and industry response to COVID-19, supported by close to $800 million in new funding.
Significant among these measures was doubling funding available to Canada's innovative companies through NRC's industrial research assistance program. This increased funding supported jobs and preserved value through the business and operational challenges caused by the COVID-19 economic downturn. In addition, the NRC leveraged its experience to build a made-in-Canada system to test lots of new-to-market critical PPE, representing over 120 million products that were made available to the Canadian marketplace to meet the needs of frontline health workers. We provided over 3,000 COVID-related advisory services to innovative firms, created close to 900 youth job placements and post-graduate employment opportunities, and supported over 2,200 firms and more than 26,000 jobs through the innovation assistance program.
In closing, I want to assure Canadians that the NRC has pursued many avenues to secure solutions to the many challenges brought on by COVID-19. We leveraged our long-standing relationships from labs to factory floors. I want to recognize the work of NRC employees across the entire organization who have worked tirelessly to deliver so many critical initiatives to support Canadians during this challenging time.
I thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today and I would be pleased to take your questions.