Mr. Chair, I would like to tell the Minister of Health that I am very disturbed about this because if something does happen and we need smallpox vaccine, I want Canadians to have the very best.
The 11 vaccine producing companies, including ID Biomedical Corp., have made it clear that they cannot proceed to make trial batches unless someone pays for them. Officials from Canada's new Public Health Agency stated that they will be applying for funding to order production and testing of HFN1 vaccine.
Has or will the funding be approved or even considered? If so, how much and when?