Canada-China Relations committee  That's correct. The concerns would actually more likely be in the opposite direction. In other words, we have their data. They're the sponsor of the clinical trial and they're paying for the clinical trial, but the data is held in Canada. There's no security concern that they may steal those data because they own that data.

Canada-China Relations committee  The plan had been that the initial vaccine we would have received would be from China, but then the NRC would receive the starting material for the production of that. Once the NRC's facility was upgraded and available—remembering that was at the very beginning, before NRC's facility was upgraded—they could start manufacturing it to then supply the latter stages of the vaccine needs to the clinical trials in Canada.

Canada-China Relations committee  There wasn't from the company's standpoint. From the company's standpoint, it was part of the agreement that they would be transferring that technology to Canada.

Canada-China Relations committee  I'm not personally aware of any research being done in my university, certainly not in my centre, where there were concerns that any of that information was being shared inappropriately with any foreign countries.

Canada-China Relations committee  Yes, I'd be happy to. The decision not to ship the vaccine to Canada was not made by CanSino. They were not able to get export agreement and it became clear during the month of August that this had nothing to do with just bureaucratic paperwork, because, as I was mentioning when I was cut off, that vaccine was then cleared to be shipped out of China to Russia, Pakistan and then eventually to Mexico, Chile and Argentina, which were part of the phase three trials that we had designed.

Canada-China Relations committee  Yes, the phase three study was implemented. It began in September in Pakistan and Russia. Pakistan enrolled a large number of participants and then enrolment was started in Mexico, Chile and Argentina. Pakistan and Mexico were the two countries that contributed the most participants, volunteers, to the study.

Canada-China Relations committee  That's one of the most important issues we're facing now. These vaccines were authorized for emergency use with information from up to about three months. Obviously, we want a vaccine that lasts longer. There's a lot of work that's now ongoing to look at duration of protection and what we call vaccine effectiveness, as we're rolling them out in the real world situation.

Canada-China Relations committee  We have had security briefings, and I've met with a representative from CSIS on multiple occasions. I have his direct line if I ever have a concern or question.

Canada-China Relations committee  Thank you very much. I was just going to say that I do have a direct access to the experts at CSIS, and they have my number. They also call me on a routine basis to get any updates and discuss both general security issues and my centre's interaction with CanSino Biologics.

Canada-China Relations committee  I think mostly I was just going to complete that timeline and if there are any specific questions about my continued interaction with CanSino, I'd be happy to discuss those further, if there's any interest in that.

Canada-China Relations committee  No, I was not aware of that program. I was aware that the founders had previously worked in Canada at Sanofi Pasteur and had then gone back to China to start that company, but I was not aware of their program.

Canada-China Relations committee  No, that's not correct. I was informed that the shipment scheduled for that day was not coming, but not that vaccines.... It wasn't until August that we found there would not be shipments of vaccine to Canada. Up until that point, the dates of scheduling them kept rolling back and back and back, until finally the vaccine had to be shipped back from the airport to the company while they continued to try to get the process for release of them through customs.

Canada-China Relations committee  It's very important. It's a truism, albeit a worn-out truism, that viruses don't respect borders. We really need to have collaboration so that when variants become apparent in any jurisdiction anywhere in the world, they're very quickly shared so they can be sequenced. If revised vaccines need to be made, it needs to be done very quickly.

Canada-China Relations committee  Canada has one of the most rigorous regulatory authorities in the world. Any vaccine, before it gets to widespread use in a population, has to undergo a series of clinical trials—phase one, phase two and phase three studies with an increasing number of people in them—that look for safety and efficacy.

Canada-China Relations committee  I do now. I had it on before, but I guess when I logged back in it didn't come back.