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.
Professor, Faculty of Medecine, As an Individual
Yes. When you change the dosing like that, it means that you ask the people to take medication, or a vaccine in this case, in a different posology. You have to assess the risk and the benefit in these cases.
When you give that to a patient, you have to inform them in detail of what will be the benefit for their health, and also the potential risk. In this case, we cannot really give them this information, because we don't have the data for that.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
Can you think of any reason the minutes of the NACI meetings or the votes of potential members should be held confidential from the public?
Professor, Faculty of Medecine, As an Individual
Well, no, and I don't think they are. They are just delayed. They are coming weeks after the decisions.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
Okay. If this was something that our committee compelled NACI to produce, do you see any reason for that not to happen immediately?
Professor, Faculty of Medecine, As an Individual
No. In my opinion, that should happen immediately.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
Do you see any reason that journalists shouldn't be allowed, as part of the NACI deliberations?
Professor, Faculty of Medecine, As an Individual
No, there is no confidentiality, because there was no decision on which vaccine...that contract confidentiality.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
Mr. Pinnow, was NACI ever in contact with your company?
President, Pfizer Canada Inc.
Over the course of all the business we do, we have engaged with NACI, but as it relates to the current four-month dose schedule recommendation, we have not been in contact with them.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ron McKinnon
Thank you, Ms. Rempel Garner.
We'll go to Dr. Powlowski, please, for four minutes.
Liberal
Marcus Powlowski Liberal Thunder Bay—Rainy River, ON
My question is to Mr. Pinnow.
You mentioned that the supply chain to make your vaccine includes 86 suppliers in 19 countries. Is Canada one of those 19 countries?
President, Pfizer Canada Inc.
Right now, a company in Vancouver was critical in our development of this vaccine by providing IP and a licence for that IP that was related to the lipid nanoparticle. While they are not directly supplying us with any part of the supply chain their know-how and expertise was critical.
Liberal
Marcus Powlowski Liberal Thunder Bay—Rainy River, ON
Does having that link give us any advantage in negotiating contracts? That is to say, because we were somehow part of developing this, was that reflected in the price we had to pay?
President, Pfizer Canada Inc.
The negotiations and additional details on the negotiations are confidential, and unfortunately I cannot share those details.
Liberal
Marcus Powlowski Liberal Thunder Bay—Rainy River, ON
I have to say that Pfizer did a fantastic job. Undoubtedly there are a lot of people alive today who otherwise wouldn't be alive if your company hadn't produced the vaccine as quickly as you did. You certainly get kudos for having done that.
You are a company, however, and you have obligations to your shareholders. You also need to recoup the high costs of developing various drugs, so you have to realize a profit in selling, particularly in developed countries. Financially, I think you're going to do pretty well out of this.
What is Pfizer's attitude towards profits in developing countries? Would you consider the possibility of voluntary licensing, or producing and selling vaccines at cost to developing countries?
President, Pfizer Canada Inc.
As I mentioned earlier we do have a pricing tier that is reflective of a country's income level. Thirty-six per cent of our contracted volumes are for middle- and low-income countries, and we have made a 40-million dose commitment to COVAX. We also support the Government of Canada's surplus donation plans that are in place. However, on the question around IP, we do not believe that waiving IP is an easy answer to the capacity challenges that we face.
Oftentimes it's been highlighted that there are more than three mRNA vaccines that are currently seeking authorization here in Canada. The biggest bottlenecks are time to development; the manufacturing production, which requires expertise; and the global supply chains, which require procuring very difficult-to-source material. Waiving IP is not going to affect solving the current ramp-up in production that Pfizer and a number of other companies are going through right now.
Liberal
Marcus Powlowski Liberal Thunder Bay—Rainy River, ON
I think you said you're supplying COVAX with a certain number of vaccines. You may not want to reveal this either, but on the price that you charge to COVAX for the vaccines, is that at cost or at a minimum profit?
Liberal
Marcus Powlowski Liberal Thunder Bay—Rainy River, ON
Okay.
I have a quick question, hopefully, for Dr. Grandvaux.
I know in Ontario there's a database that links your OHIP number to the vaccine that you got and the time you received it. Also, your OHIP number—and I'm sure you have something similar in Quebec—is linked to test results, so we could theoretically get real-time data by linking these because we'll get the results on the variants. We could link the two so we would know whether the variants were emerging in people who have been vaccinated.
Liberal
Marcus Powlowski Liberal Thunder Bay—Rainy River, ON
Let me just finish.
Is there any attempt to link this data in Quebec if you get real-time data?
Professor, Faculty of Medecine, As an Individual
I know the system exists to collect this data, but I don't know if they are connected, and if people are trying to connect data at the moment in Quebec.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ron McKinnon
Thank you, Doctor.
We'll now turn to Mr. Lemire from the Bloc Québécois.
Mr. Lemire, you have the floor for two minutes.
Bloc
Sébastien Lemire Bloc Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I didn't hear the interpretation, but I take it that you're giving me the floor.
My first question is for Mr. Pinnow.
I want to start by congratulating Pfizer for its leadership and for ultimately winning the vaccine race.
I want to know whether the supply and demand factor influences the price of a vaccine in the pharmaceutical industry.