I now call this meeting to order. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to meeting number 20 of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology.
Today's meeting is taking place in a hybrid format pursuant to the House order of January 25, 2021. The proceedings will be made available via the House of Commons website. So you are aware, the webcast will only show the person speaking rather than the entirety of the committee. To ensure an orderly meeting, I'll outline the usual rules.
Members and witnesses may speak in the official language of their choice. Interpretation services are available for this meeting. You have the choice at the bottom of your screen of “floor”, “English” or “French”. Before speaking, please wait until I recognize you by name. If you're on video conference, please click on the microphone icon to unmute your mike. When you are not speaking, your mike should be on mute.
As a reminder, all comments by members and witnesses should be addressed through the chair. As is my normal practice, I will hold up the yellow card for when you have 30 seconds remaining and the red card for when the time for your intervention has expired.
We have a very full agenda this morning and I understand two witness groups have to leave at noon. Therefore, I'm going to ask you to please respect the time so that everyone can get a turn.
Pursuant to Standing Order 108(2) and the motion adopted by the committee on Tuesday, December 1, 2020, the committee is meeting today to study the domestic manufacturing capacity for a COVID-19 vaccine.
I now welcome our witnesses. Today, we have Dr. Mona Nemer, who is the chief science adviser; Brian Lichty, an associate professor at McMaster University; Karen Mossman, vice-president of research at McMaster University; from Precision NanoSystems, James Taylor, CEO, and Andrew Booth, chairman; from Medicago, Takashi Nagao, president and CEO, and Nicolas Petit, vice-president of commercial operations; and Dr. Gary Kobinger, of Université Laval.
Each witness will present for up to seven minutes, followed by a round of questions.
We will start with Dr. Nemer.
You have seven minutes.