Industry committee  Thank you, Chair. Good afternoon, members. On behalf of my colleagues, we're very pleased to be here today to provide you with an update on domestic biomanufacturing capacity in Canada. It's well established that at the outset of the pandemic, Canada had very little of the bio

Industry committee  Absolutely, and thank you very much for the question. Medicago is most certainly one of the vaccine manufacturers in the country that we've invested in over the last number of years.

Industry committee  That's a very important question. I'm happy to answer it and to provide as much information as I can regarding the process for making investment decisions and, quite frankly, the situation regarding Canada's investment in Medicago. The first thing I would say is that there is an

Industry committee  Again, thank you very much for the question. At the time of the investment, it really was an investment in their vaccine candidate and looking to get an effective and safe vaccine to market as soon as possible. The ownership structure and the challenge that it might present to

Industry committee  Thank you. It's a pleasure to answer that question. You're absolutely right. At the outset of the pandemic, when Canada went looking for the capacity that it could rely on to develop and manufacture a COVID vaccine, it found a sector that had been largely diminishing over many y

Industry committee  If it's okay, I might turn to my colleague Darryl Patterson to answer that part of the question.

Industry committee  As I said in my first answer, we did know. It's part of the due diligence process and looking at the financial situation of the company. Part of that is an examination of the ownership structure. There was an awareness at the outset that PMI had a minority position over Medicago.

Industry committee  I will turn to my colleague Daniel Quinn, who has oversight over research infrastructure and can probably provide you some information regarding the process for laboratory approvals. Daniel.

Industry committee  If we look back to last year's budget and the commitment to $2.2 billion, which is in addition to the $1.6 billion that has been spent to date, that's the marker for funding the strategy. Of the $2.2 billion, approximately $1 billion is dedicated to various research undertakings,

Industry committee  Go ahead, Maria.

Industry committee  Thank you so much for the question. Your question raises a number of really important issues, the first of which is that Medicago is, first and foremost, a vaccine manufacturing firm that is not controlled by PMI. It is completely independent. It operates in and around Quebec Ci

Industry committee  Thank you for the question. I will say off the top that you're asking a question that is not really in my area of expertise, nor in my colleagues'. If we have time, I might turn to my colleague Darryl Patterson, who could offer a few views. You're asking a very big question abo

Industry committee  In terms of red tape reduction, it's an interesting question. I have a few thoughts in response. I think there are opportunities that probably exist on multiple levels. Some of these have proven themselves over the past 18 months, where you've seen a level of agility and speedin

Industry committee  In terms of examples, I may turn to Rodrigo. In the early stage of the pandemic, there were a number of significant funding decisions that were made, early on and in a very compressed time frame, that have proven to be highly advantageous. Rodrigo, could you provide a couple of

Industry committee  There's a period of reflection that's happening right now. We're still in the pandemic. We're all hopeful that it's in the rear-view mirror soon enough. I think across government, you're going to see many of us reflecting on the experience of what worked and what didn't, or what