Health Committee on Nov. 20th, 2020

[Patty Hajdu, Liberal, Thunder Bay—Superior North, ON]

I will turn to my officials to talk about the various aspects of the AstraZeneca vaccine, perhaps Stephen Lucas.

[Dr. Stephen Lucas]

Thank you, Minister.

I will indicate that we have received the regulatory submission from AstraZeneca, based on obtaining it from a manufacturing site outside of Canada.

I'll turn to Iain Stewart, president of the Public Health Agency, to provide a few more words in terms of the approach.

[Iain Stewart, President, Public Health Agency of Canada]

So far, Canadian domestic manufacturing capacity has been focused on Canadian vaccine development, for instance by companies like VBI, as opposed to international companies.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

Could I follow up, Mr. Stewart? Of the promising vaccines from Pfizer, Moderna or AstraZeneca, has Canada negotiated the right to manufacture those vaccines here, if any of those vaccines are approved by Health Canada?

[Iain Stewart]

Our relationship with them is to procure their vaccines, and have them manufacture and deliver them to us. They have not asked us to manufacture vaccines for them.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

Okay.

We know that we're going through the flu vaccine season and there have been shortages of flu vaccine around the country. I'm just wondering who is going to be doing the vaccinations, hopefully if and when we are proceeding with that. Presumably we'll have tens of millions of Canadians lining up for a COVID vaccine. Is that going to be done through the nation's pharmacies? Who is coordinating that? Who will be doing the vaccinations?

[Patty Hajdu, Liberal, Thunder Bay—Superior North, ON]

Thank you very much. Through the chair, delivery of the vaccines will rest largely with provinces and territories, in terms of vaccinating Canadians. It is their primary responsibility to deliver health care, including vaccination programs. The federal government is procuring the vaccines and, in some cases, distributing vaccines to agreed-upon centres in the provinces and territories. The administration of the vaccine to Canadians will be largely done by provincial partners.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ron McKinnon]

Thank you, Mr. Davies.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ron McKinnon]

That ends our six-minute round.

We'll start our second round with Mr. Barlow, I believe, for five minutes.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Actually, Chair, it's me. We just switched the top two.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ron McKinnon]

I see. Go ahead, Ms. Rempel Garner, for five minutes, please.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Thank you, Chair.

To either the deputy minister or the president, the minister mentioned that some doses of the vaccine would arrive in Q1. How many will there be?

[Iain Stewart]

Under our existing agreements, we expect to be receiving six million doses by March 31.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

That's a pretty quick timeline. Just to my colleague Mr. Davies' questions, by what date are you telling the provinces to be ready to administer the vaccine?

[Iain Stewart]

There is a lot of uncertainty about when vaccines will actually be ready. We have contracts that request vaccines by March 31, but they have to be approved for use in Canada. That regulatory decision has yet to be taken.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Just to clarify then, when the minister says that some doses may arrive, there are six million doses that may arrive by the end of March, but we're not sure if the regulatory approval will be done by then. Is that correct?

[Iain Stewart]

There are six million doses contracted to arrive by March 31, and yes, in order to use those doses, we need to have them approved by the regulator.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Do you have a sense of whether or not that would be done by the time of their arrival?

[Iain Stewart]

I'll turn to my colleague Stephen Lucas. He's the regulator at Health Canada.

[Dr. Stephen Lucas]

Mr. Chair, I would indicate that for both Pfizer and Moderna, we received their rolling submissions near the beginning of October and, as Minister Hajdu has indicated, have been reviewing that information. Upon the completion of information provided by the manufacturer, Health Canada will render its regulatory decisions as quickly as possible.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Do you think that will happen before or after March 31?

[Dr. Stephen Lucas]

We are working very diligently with the information provided. We will complete our regulatory review as quickly as possible following the final provision of information from the manufacturer, as required by the interim order and rolling review process.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

To either of you, have you given the provinces any sort of target date for readiness within that timeline?

[Iain Stewart]

As the minister indicated, we're in a long and deep discussion with the provinces around preparing—