I'm not aware if it has.
Evidence of meeting #23 for Health in the 43rd Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was vaccine.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #23 for Health in the 43rd Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was vaccine.
A recording is available from Parliament.
12:15 p.m.
Conservative
12:15 p.m.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
Oh, okay. I didn't expect that. That's frightening.
Dr. Grandvaux has suggested that the decision to delay the dosing by four months is based on assumptions and opinion and not data. In fact, Canada's chief science officer has characterized this decision as a.... I believe, the words she used were “population [based] experiment”, that it's a clinical trial without consent.
Would you agree with that characterization?
12:20 p.m.
President, Pfizer Canada Inc.
I really believe that it's in Canadians' best interests to support whatever national program for vaccination has been determined by the government, but I do agree that differences between different health agencies—and I point to the product monograph that has been agreed to with Health Canada, which assigns a 21-day dose, versus the NACI recommendation, which is now four months—create concern, confusion and potential hesitancy from certain people within Canada.
12:20 p.m.
Conservative
12:20 p.m.
President, Pfizer Canada Inc.
We understand that it is other health professionals' authority to determine what the dose schedule is.
12:20 p.m.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
Okay.
Were there any other requests for data or information for your company from NACI or any of the members of NACI prior to making this recommendation?
12:20 p.m.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
Okay.
It's my understanding that another miracle is about to occur from your company. You guys are on top of vaccine boosters addressing potential variants. That's impressive.
Are you in negotiation with the Canadian government for contracts on any potential boosters for variants?
12:20 p.m.
President, Pfizer Canada Inc.
We have provided a status update on the development program that we're working on, so we have had conversations about that, but we have not formally begun discussions on boosters as of yet.
12:20 p.m.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
Has any other country around the world begun conversations or established contracts for boosters with Pfizer?
12:20 p.m.
President, Pfizer Canada Inc.
Canada is on par with the rest of the world in discussing the status of both boosters and variants as we continue to evaluate the situation that could be emerging in the future.
12:20 p.m.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
Can you update our status on the progress of clinical trials on your vaccine for persons under the age of 18? When will that be completed?
12:20 p.m.
President, Pfizer Canada Inc.
We are now completing a study on adolescents between the ages of 12 and 16. We anticipate having that data filed here in a couple of months. We will then initiate a program for children aged 5 to 11. We are also currently conducting clinical studies, including here in Canada, for pregnant women. Those three studies are under way.
12:20 p.m.
Liberal
Darren Fisher Liberal Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you to all the witnesses today who are here sharing their level of expertise.
Mr. Pinnow, there was a suggestion that Canada wasn't engaged early enough, and that we didn't get a good enough deal with your company. Could you take a few moments to elaborate on how early in the process we engaged with your company? Could you also tell us about the comprehensive contract that Canada has with Pfizer that led you to actually beating your total dose target for this month?
12:20 p.m.
President, Pfizer Canada Inc.
Mr. Chair, I'll respond to the first question, and then ask the member to clarify the second question.
As I stated in my opening remarks, when we first identified the opportunity to bring a vaccine to market, we did work collaboratively with the Canadian government. We issued a five-point letter outlining what Pfizer's commitment was to pursue multiple levels of response to this pandemic.
Part of the challenge that we had, if we're comparing to other countries, is that the rolling submission process was not in place until September. Therefore, when we finalized our initial contract with the government in August, we anticipated a timeline that very much looked like Australia.
Australia received approval through its normal regulatory review process in late January, and initiated its first vaccinations of Pfizer's vaccine in that country in early February. It wasn't until mid-November that we identified a pathway that would allow us to bring this product to Canadians in December. Ever since then, we have been working to accelerate delivery to this country.
12:25 p.m.
Liberal
Darren Fisher Liberal Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS
You kind of touched on the second question there, Mr. Pinnow. When there was a bit of a bump in the road, as we called it, with the number of vaccines coming in, you did some work at your Belgium plant to enable your company to increase capacity.
Can you tell me where you went? Did that double capacity or quadruple it?
12:25 p.m.
President, Pfizer Canada Inc.
We went from 1.3 billion doses on a global basis to 2 billion doses in the months of January and February, concurrent to us making changes to the Belgium facility.
12:25 p.m.
Liberal
Darren Fisher Liberal Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS
Dr. Dubé, I noticed that you are an expert in the socio-cultural impacts of vaccination. We talk a lot about vaccine hesitancy, and the importance of ensuring that people understand that the vaccines that are in Canada, the vaccines that are in the world, are safe and effective vaccines.
Can you give us some advice on what we should be doing to ensure that people feel confident in taking these vaccines?
12:25 p.m.
Researcher, Research Center, Université Laval, As an Individual
The Government of Canada is already doing a lot of work through the vaccine task force with many campaigns. What we face at the moment is an infodemic, an epidemic of information and communication on top of the pandemic. There's a lot of confusion. There's a lot of publicity around vaccines that generates doubt in the public. We follow that in our work in Quebec, looking at social media discourses along with traditional media publications.
There's a lot of conflicting information, often the result of clinical trials that are portrayed in the media without sufficient consideration of all the details. This makes it difficult for the general public to understand and appraise the recommendations by public health authorities in order to know exactly what to do.
12:25 p.m.
Liberal
Darren Fisher Liberal Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS
If we had one message for Canadians about vaccine hesitancy, in your opinion, are we articulating that clearly enough?
12:25 p.m.
Researcher, Research Center, Université Laval, As an Individual
There's a lot of good work. From a governmental perspective, it's hard to have a take on what the media are doing.
One of the major issues is around how all the journalists are looking at details. It's more along those lines.
12:25 p.m.
Liberal
Darren Fisher Liberal Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS
Thank you.
I'll go back to Mr. Pinnow for a quick second.
You mentioned the rolling submission. How important was that to getting a deal in place for vaccines for Canada in a timely fashion?
