Thank you very much.
Evidence of meeting #25 for Health in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was chair.
A video is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #25 for Health in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was chair.
A video is available from Parliament.
5:05 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Sean Casey
Thank you, Mr. Lake and Minister Duclos.
Next is Dr. Powlowski, please, for five minutes.
5:05 p.m.
Liberal
Marcus Powlowski Liberal Thunder Bay—Rainy River, ON
Minister, it seems to me, anyhow, that part of managing the ongoing COVID pandemic and especially avoiding a further need for shutdowns is doing better at getting out therapeutics for the treatment of COVID. Certainly, studies have shown Paxlovid to be quite effective if given early to high-risk people to prevent progression to more severe disease.
I think that in the supplementaries there is some extra funding for therapeutics. Can you tell me more about that in terms of how much money and for which therapeutics?
5:10 p.m.
Liberal
Jean-Yves Duclos Liberal Québec, QC
Yes. Paxlovid has been a remarkable drug until now, as we know, and, as you of all people know, the initial clinical evidence was strong. It has been increasingly available in clinical settings across Canada. It started a bit slow, because provinces and territories initially found it a bit challenging, let's say, as always happens, to make sure the drug was available in the right places, but we can be very proud of the outcomes they have achieved in the last few months.
Added to that is Evusheld, which is another therapeutic that is more particularly available for vulnerable populations that may not respond well to COVID-19 vaccines. That's also something very good from a clinical but also a social and public health perspective. We have other tools in our tool kit that we're hoping to bring forward.
5:10 p.m.
Liberal
Marcus Powlowski Liberal Thunder Bay—Rainy River, ON
What is the amount of money that we've put towards therapeutics?
5:10 p.m.
Liberal
Jean-Yves Duclos Liberal Québec, QC
In total, we have budgeted $2 billion for the range of treatments, and that includes, as I said, Paxlovid and other possible drugs that fortunately and remarkably have been developed quite quickly, and in some cases with very good results.
5:10 p.m.
Liberal
Marcus Powlowski Liberal Thunder Bay—Rainy River, ON
Is Evusheld now approved by Health Canada? I think it is being pretty widely used in the United States for people who for one reason or another can't take Paxlovid because they're taking other drugs that interact with it, or they have renal failure or are on dialysis. Can either you, Minister, or anyone in the department tell us whether that has been approved yet by Health Canada? If not, when do we expect that it may get approval?
5:10 p.m.
Liberal
Jean-Yves Duclos Liberal Québec, QC
Maybe I should turn to Dr. Lucas immediately, who may then turn to another official.
5:10 p.m.
Deputy Minister, Department of Health
Mr. Chair, Evusheld by AstraZeneca was authorized by Health Canada on April 14 of this year. The Government of Canada has purchased treatment courses that have been distributed to provinces.
5:10 p.m.
Liberal
Marcus Powlowski Liberal Thunder Bay—Rainy River, ON
Thank you very much.
Minister, on a totally different subject, I know it's already been mentioned that you recently returned from the World Health Assembly. I understand that the World Health Assembly and WHO have embarked on writing a new treaty on control of infectious disease and also on revisions to the international health regulations.
Maybe you could tell us a bit about what you found with respect to what WHO is doing in improving global health governance to try to prevent further pandemics like this in the future, or, if there are pandemics, making us better able to respond to pandemics on a global level.
5:10 p.m.
Liberal
Jean-Yves Duclos Liberal Québec, QC
I'll answer it in two different pieces.
First is on COVID-19 and a very important related issue, which you know quite well, the antimicrobial resistance issue. That has been a key element in discussions at the WHO, and prior to that at the G7 meeting. On both of these, we need a better ability to share data and to coordinate actions across the world, in particular in development of vaccines and therapeutics.
The second piece is around climate change. We spent quite a lot of time, at the G7 meeting in particular, speaking about what we increasingly know to be the terrible impact of climate change on the health of Canadians and the health of others, but also on the impact for our health care systems and making our health care system more resilient to the impact of climate change in our country and across the world.
5:10 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Sean Casey
Thank you, Minister. We've now reached the hour at which you have a hard stop.
I want to thank you for testifying from isolation. I want to thank you for battling through the technical difficulties.
Minister Duclos, there's an emergency physician in my riding by the name of Dr. Trevor Jain, who accepts nominations and grants awards for COVID warriors. I'll be putting your name forward.
Thank you so much for being with us. I know that you have another commitment at this time. I wish you good luck and a good recovery.
Thank you, Minister.
5:15 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Sean Casey
I'd like now to welcome the other witnesses who were introduced at the outset, and invite them to proceed with their opening statements. Perhaps we can begin with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.
Dr. Mithani, you have the floor for the next five minutes.
5:15 p.m.
Dr. Siddika Mithani President, Canadian Food Inspection Agency
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I do not have any opening remarks for this session.
5:15 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Sean Casey
Well, that leaves us more time for questions.
Dr. Strong, from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, do you have some opening remarks for us?
June 8th, 2022 / 5:15 p.m.
Dr. Michael Strong President, Canadian Institutes of Health Research
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'm the same as Dr. Mithani. I am most happy to answer questions as they come forward.
5:15 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Sean Casey
We're making remarkable progress.
The Public Health Agency of Canada, Dr. Kochhar, are you ready to go right to questions, or do you have some opening remarks for us?
5:15 p.m.
Dr. Harpreet S. Kochhar President, Public Health Agency of Canada
Mr. Chair, I don't have any opening remarks, and I'll reserve the time for answering any questions.
Thank you.
5:15 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Sean Casey
Excellent.
Colleagues, I guess we can just continue on.
Go ahead, Mr. Thériault. You have two and a half minutes.
5:15 p.m.
Bloc
Luc Thériault Bloc Montcalm, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
We know that, to date, only PAXLOVID has been approved as an antiviral drug. I have already asked about molnupiravir, for which an application was filed in August 2021. The application for authorization for PAXLOVID was submitted in December 2021 and was approved in January 2022. Mr. Lucas had said that it was coming, and he informed us of that several weeks ago now. I wonder what's wrong.
In my opinion—and I imagine Dr. Tam would agree—there are specific interactions between PAXLOVID and other drugs, so a second antiviral drug that doesn't have the same problematic interactions cannot be avoided. These interactions are due to a particular ingredient in PAXLOVID that is not in molnupiravir.
When will molnupiravir be approved?
Is there a problem? We've been waiting for this approval for a long time.
5:15 p.m.
Deputy Minister, Department of Health
Mr. Chair, I will respond to the question. The review of Molnupiravir by Health Canada's regulatory—