Public Accounts committee  Mr. Chair, I will respond. As I noted to the previous honourable member, the government has invested in a biomanufacturing life science strategy. That is invested in further establishing all aspects...from vaccine therapeutic production to the fill and finish of the final bottle

Public Accounts committee  In addition to that, the National Research Council has established a biologics manufacturing centre. We are diversifying our ability to respond quickly, and here in Canada, to the threat of a new—

Public Accounts committee  Mr. Chair, I don't have the comparative numbers offhand. I know, however, that the Public Health Agency has done modelling, which has been published, on the counterfactual of what would have happened had there not been access to vaccines. I'll turn to Dr. Kochhar to provide that

Public Accounts committee  As the parent company, the Mitsubishi Chemical Group made the business decision to cease support for the operations of its partner, Medicago. We will of course be closely following the next steps in this process in order to preserve Medicago's talent, research laboratories and pr

Public Accounts committee  The time required to approve a vaccine depends on the date that Health Canada starts processing the file and the date the company provides the data. I can provide further details on this.

Public Accounts committee  Mr. Chair, I'll respond and then turn to Arianne Reza. The United States government, through its Operation Warp Speed, was focused on supporting the research and development of the vaccines, working with those companies. Elements of those included purchase commitments. The Gove

Public Accounts committee  Mr. Chair, the vaccine task force was established in May 2020 and provided advice to the government—through the then ministers of health and of innovation, science and economic development—in terms of its assessment of all vaccines being developed globally. That led to the recomm

Public Accounts committee  Mr. Chair, as I noted, there are technical barriers in terms of systems being able to connect, but work is advancing on that, looking to align with international standards, working with Canada Health Infoway, provinces, territories and other key stakeholders. It's important, of

Public Accounts committee  Mr. Chair, what I would indicate is that the advance purchase agreements with the seven manufacturers were concluded between the summer and fall of 2020. The first vaccine authorized, the Pfizer vaccine, in early December 2020, was within days of the initial authorization. In the

Public Accounts committee  In regard to early access to vaccines by Canadians, there was not an advance purchase agreement with CanSino, and further questions, as Ms. Reza from PSPC indicated, could be directed to officials from Innovation, Science and Economic Development pertaining to that.

Public Accounts committee  As was noted, the critical importance of health data in informing both public health and health care responses was highlighted in the pandemic, as well as in the report of the Auditor General. During the course of the pandemic, the Public Health Agency and Health Canada worked e

Public Accounts committee  I'll defer to Dr. Kochhar on that question.

Public Accounts committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would like to thank the committee members for the opportunity to appear before you today. Joining me is Health Canada's chief medical advisor, Dr. Supriya Sharma, and the acting associate assistant deputy minister of the health products and food branch, D

Health committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I will start, and then I'll turn it over to Heather Jeffrey to speak further. Certainly, support for children's health is a key priority for Health Canada and the Public Health Agency and in work at the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, including wor

Health committee  I'll turn to Heather Jeffrey to respond.