Thank you, Mr. Chair.
It is a pleasure to be here with you today again, back at the health committee. I thank members for the opportunity to talk about the contract with Medicago, and more specifically, to talk about the government's action to ensure that all Canadians had access to a vaccine during the pandemic.
Maybe I'll start with global context, where we were when the darkness of COVID-19 first fell over this country. Folks will remember that there were open questions about whether or not a vaccine would be possible, perhaps for five or 10 years. It is an absolute miracle of science that vaccine solutions were found. I want to thank deeply and profoundly the officials with both PHAC and Health Canada for their incredible work during those incredibly difficult times.
In April of 2020, Canada established a COVID-19 vaccine task force. This was a multidisciplinary team of external experts and industry leaders in the fields of vaccines and immunology. They were tasked with looking at the viable options for a vaccine, and there were seven. Those seven options, based on science and technical ability to produce, were identified for Canada to move forward, to try to ensure that, if they did develop, we would have the opportunity for Canadians to have access.
Advance purchase agreements were entered into. The idea of entering into an advance purchase agreement was to mitigate the risk, to ensure timely delivery and, frankly, to make sure that every Canadian had a dose of the vaccine they needed to save their lives.
By their very nature, they were flexible, and it was also contemplated from day one that not all seven would be successful. Remember, we didn't know which one would be successful. We knew there were seven viable options, but there was no way of knowing which one would manifest as that which would be able to save lives, which was so essential to Canadians.
I think it's important to recognize that this strategy of using advance purchasing agreements.... I'm going to turn to it, because I think it's worth noting. An estimated 800,000 lives in Canada were saved. Some 1.9 million hospitalizations were averted, and 34 million COVID cases were averted. That was, again, all without knowing which solution would provide that answer.
When we take a look at Medicago, which is the one that's before us today and was one of those seven options.... This was Canadian-based, and it shared an exciting, innovative technology that used a plant base for the first time. As you will be aware, most were egg-based. This was the first in the world, an ability.... Of course, we don't know how that might be used in the future. It's a really important innovation that I hope will be able to make a huge difference.
With the Government of Canada's support, Medicago developed a safe and effective vaccine. In fact, on February 24, 2022, it was authorized for use in Canada. Now, if it hadn't been for the fact that there were other vaccines that were approved and in the market—and not, at that point, even on an ancestral strain but actually up to date with what the most current variants were—it could very well have been a world where we needed Medicago.
The reality is that Canada was well under way with an enormously successful vaccination campaign and many other products. As a result, there wasn't a need to proceed with the Medicago vaccine. That, of course, still meant that we had to honour that stab in the dark that we took to try to make sure that one of those seven options was there.
I would say, though—just around transparency, because I know there have been a number of questions in this committee on that—that the Public Health Agency of Canada and Public Services and Procurement Canada have shared all the relevant details of this contract, as with the other advance purchase agreements. They have shared it with the Standing Committee on Public Accounts and with the Auditor General, with appropriate confidentiality provisions in place.
I would also state that, as a final step, the Public Health Agency has publicly disclosed the amount paid as part of the public accounts.
Subsequent to the tabling of the public accounts, the company agreed to further public disclosure of additional details to identify the company and the amount of the non-refundable advance payment as well to confirm that the terms of the payment that had been met and that the contract was terminated by mutual consent.
I would also highlight that the Office of the Auditor General recently finished auditing the financial transactions of the Public Health Agency of Canada for the third fiscal year in a row and has confirmed the accuracy and the reliability of the financial information.
Further, committee members will recall that in December 2022 the Auditor General published an audit of COVID-19 vaccines covering the period of January 1, 2020, to May 31, 2022. This report found that the procurement, authorization, allocation and distribution of vaccines were efficient.
In conclusion, at a moment of great confusion, when we didn't know if any solution would be present, Canada took a bet on seven options, and thank goodness we did. We could never have known which one would work out and, from the beginning, the advance purchase agreements contemplated that not all of them would. Medicago is one that did pan out but it panned out in a time frame where it was rendered not necessary because of the success of the other options.
I want to close by thanking, once again, the incredible officials who have done unbelievable work to ensure that Canada had one of the best COVID-19 responses anywhere in the world, along with one of the lowest death rates that was seen anywhere in the world.
With that, Mr. Chair, it would be my pleasure to take questions.
