Health Committee on Dec. 4th, 2023

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

Thank you, Mr. Deltell.

Ms. Sidhu, go ahead, please, for five minutes.

[Sonia Sidhu, Liberal, Brampton South, ON]

Thank you, Chair.

My question is for Public Works.

It's important to emphasize that the decision to halt the operation of the Medicago vaccine is not in any way related to the safety of the vaccine or to other technical reasons. Multiple research reports state that the Medicago vaccine was effective in preventing COVID-19 caused by many variants, with efficacy ranging from 69.5% against symptomatic infection to 78.8% against moderate to severe disease. According to the New England Journal of Medicine, the participants in these studies were from 85 centres across Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, the U.K. and the U.S.A., which pointed to the benefit of the vaccine for people worldwide.

Can you talk to us about the trial process and what information was made available to you about it?

[Joëlle Paquette]

You would have to direct that question to the Public Health Agency of Canada.

The vaccine task force studied the potential vaccines, and they provided advice. Then the Public Health Agency advised Public Services and Procurement Canada to proceed with advance purchase agreements with those seven vaccine suppliers.

Our role is to purchase on behalf of another government entity what they require in order to deliver on their programs.

[Sonia Sidhu, Liberal, Brampton South, ON]

Can you explain how risk was shared in this environment?

[Joëlle Paquette]

What risk?

[Sonia Sidhu, Liberal, Brampton South, ON]

On the advance purchase agreements, the agreement with Medicago was announced on October 23, 2020. Health Canada approved Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine on December 9 of that year. In fact, all the agreements entered into were negotiated at a time when none of these manufacturers had approved products yet.

Can you tell us how that uncertainty affected PSPC's work in negotiating these advance purchase agreements?

[Joëlle Paquette]

We entered negotiations with all of these suppliers to obtain a share of their vaccines as soon as they would be available for Canada. We were in a position where globally all of these same vaccine suppliers were also trying to obtain agreements with other countries. The objective was for Canada to obtain agreements with them as soon as possible so that we would have a viable solution of a vaccine as soon as they obtained Health Canada approval.

We succeeded with Pfizer and Moderna in December to have vaccines for Canadians. It was a risk of possibly not having any vaccine with any of these suppliers, but we took that risk, not knowing which one would obtain Health Canada approval and when.

[Sonia Sidhu, Liberal, Brampton South, ON]

Thank you.

Can you tell us what exactly Medicago was contracted to do? What were the milestones that this contract work measured against?

[Andrea Andrachuk]

The advance purchase agreement with Medicago was awarded in November 2020, and there was a firm commitment for 20 million doses to be delivered by the end of December 2021, as well as optional additional doses of up to 56 million.

The contract was later amended. Because the Health Canada authorization was received in February 2022, the contract was amended to change the delivery of the 20 million firm doses to the end of 2022.

[Sonia Sidhu, Liberal, Brampton South, ON]

Mr. Chair, how much time do I have?

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

You have 30 seconds.

[Sonia Sidhu, Liberal, Brampton South, ON]

I'll pass it on. Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

Thank you, Ms. Sidhu.

Ms. Vignola, you have the floor for two and a half minutes.

[Julie Vignola, Bloc, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Ms. Andrachuk, do you know whether the government is currently in negotiations with the Mitsubishi Chemical corporation to obtain the intellectual property rights on Medicago technology?

[Andrea Andrachuk]

We are not currently in negotiations. The contract has been terminated.

[Julie Vignola, Bloc, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

For the time being then, we don't know whether Aramis Biotechnologies has purchased the intellectual property rights along with the plant, and the status of intellectual property is unknown.

Is that right?

[Andrea Andrachuk]

We at Public Services and Procurement Canada are not in negotiations.

[Julie Vignola, Bloc, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

When it was publicly established that Philip Morris International was a Medicago shareholder, Philip Morris International sold its Mitsubishi Chemical shares. After that, Mitsubishi Chemical decided to wind up Medicago. Mitsubishi chemical is not itself bankrupt.

If there had been an agreement between the Government of Quebec, the Government of Canada and a third party, would we now be talking about a $150 million loss for the Government of Canada?

Would the company have been more likely to be able to continue its operations?

[Andrea Andrachuk]

I don't think we can presume what decisions Medicago may or may not have taken. That is not ours to speak to.

I can speak to the point of view of the Government of Canada, which was also conducting supply management activities, looking at all doses we received through the seven advance purchase agreements. For the part of the Government of Canada, that was a consideration on the side of Medicago.

I understand Medicago may also be appearing before this committee. Perhaps it is a question that could be further asked to them.

[Julie Vignola, Bloc, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

Thank you, Ms. Vignola.

The last round of questions for today will come from Vancouver, I believe.

Mr. Davies, you have two and a half minutes.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair. No, I'm in Ottawa.

I'll pick up the thread. You stated that there are no negotiations currently going on between the government and Mitsubishi to obtain the IP produced by Medicago. Was there such negotiating going on, and if so, when did it end?

[Andrea Andrachuk]

To clarify, I'm here today as an official of Public Services and Procurement Canada. There are no negotiations currently being led by Public Services and Procurement Canada with respect to procurements.

I cannot speak to the full government on that point.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

The reason I ask is that the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, François-Philippe Champagne, stated to the press on November 7—about a month ago—that the government was in the process of negotiating a settlement with Mitsubishi to obtain the intellectual property produced by Medicago.

Do you have any knowledge of that?

[Andrea Andrachuk]

The question would be better referred to Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada.