Evidence of meeting #15 for Industry, Science and Technology in the 43rd Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was vaccines.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Bloc
Sébastien Lemire Bloc Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC
You have had access to the contracts, unlike us.
As far I have understood, two meetings were held recently between the Prime Minister of Canada, and the new U.S. President and Vice President, where they talked about collaboration to beat COVID-19, among other things.
What can we expect from those negotiations?
Deputy Minister, Department of Public Works and Government Services
I'll be very brief, Madam Chair. I can't speak to what the Prime Minister and the U.S. President spoke to. I'm just not in a position to share. I'm sorry.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Sherry Romanado
Thank you.
Our last slot will go to MP Davies.
You have the floor for two and a half minutes.
NDP
Don Davies NDP Vancouver Kingsway, BC
Thank you.
Well, I must say that I'm left with some confusion about AstraZeneca, whether Canada is not manufacturing here because we don't have the capacity to do so or because we didn't negotiate the right to do so.
Amir Attaran testified at health committee this week. He said:
...the National Research Council knows how to make vaccines. Its brilliant scientists were the world’s first to fully deploy an adenovirus-vectored vaccine (for rabies) ahead of any pharmaceutical company. Why can’t the federal government seal a licensing deal with AstraZeneca to make its adenovirus-vectored COVID-19 vaccine for Canadians using the NRC’s equipment?
First, is the reason the NRC isn't producing the AstraZeneca vaccine in Canada because they don't have the capacity to do so, or because we didn't negotiate the right to do so?
Mitch Davies President, National Research Council of Canada
Madam Chair, perhaps I can start. Then I'll ask a colleague to talk about the contractual negotiations.
It is a fact that the researchers at the National Research Council are familiar with the technology underlying the AstraZeneca vaccine. In fact, the facility that is being built, the biologics manufacturing facility, would have the capability to make that type of vaccine. The important matter, of course, is the company with which you're going to strike a deal to pursue that. In this case, we announced earlier this week the MOU with Novavax, which is to pursue production at that facility and in line with our capabilities, which have been mentioned.
I'll ask my colleague if he'd like to provide further information in terms of the discussions that were undertaken with each of the vaccine manufacturers, including AstraZeneca, which I think Minister Anand did address. It was part of those conversations at the early stage.
NDP
Don Davies NDP Vancouver Kingsway, BC
If I may, I have limited time. I'll just ask my last question, and then whoever wants to answer it can do so.
Minister Anand confirmed that we tried and failed to get domestic production from AstraZeneca when many other countries did. We know that the EU, the U.S. and Brazil can release contracts, or significant parts, so they obviously didn't have the same restrictive confidentiality requirements that Canada did. You're telling us that successive federal governments have let Australia, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, India, Japan, South Korea, China and other countries get domestic vaccine capacity that Canada doesn't have.
My question is this. Is it safe to say that, relatively speaking, it's pretty clear that Canada did a relatively poor job in both negotiations and pandemic preparedness?
Deputy Minister, Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, Department of Industry
Madam Chair, I can give a brief answer on the issue of capacity.
The countries that the honourable member mentioned generally had in place at the outset of the pandemic substantially greater biomanufacturing assets available. South Korea has huge biomanufacturing capability, as Minister Champagne mentioned. The Serum Institute of India, that one facility alone, is slated to be producing more than a billion shots for COVID.
These large multinationals, when they were looking to produce and looking to dedicate scarce resources to technology transfer, were looking for facilities that could produce at scale. As has already been noted, Canada did not have surplus capacity to produce at scale. Certainly, the facilities we do have—and there are excellent companies here—either had the wrong technology or were already dedicated to vital products, such as for pertussis, polio, diphtheria and those sorts of things.
I'll stop there.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Sherry Romanado
Thank you so much.
That is our time for today.
I want to thank Mr. Matthews, Mr. Kennedy and Mr. Davies for being with us and for staying a little extra to allow our members to ask these vital questions.
I want to thank the members for their excellent questions today. I think this was a great meeting.
A big thanks to the interpreters, the clerk, the analysts and the IT team.
Thank you so much for everything today.
As you know, we will have the vaccine task force with us the week of February 15. If you have additional witnesses that you would like to hear from with respect to this study, please make sure to get those lists to the clerk so that he can reach out. Again, it could be a rolling list. You don't have to have your final list. That would be fantastic.
That being said, I call this meeting adjourned. I'll see you next week.