Government Operations committee  Thank you very much.

Government Operations committee  Maybe, Mark, I could mention just a couple of key investments that were made in the public domain. One was in the National Research Council Royalmount facility, where construction of a whole new biologics manufacturing centre is under way. The second is in VIDO, which is a publ

Government Operations committee  Chair, I might just add briefly to Joanne's point that the Government of Canada has signed an advance purchase agreement with Medicago, so there's a commitment to doing it if it does get the Health Canada approval that Joanne talked about.

Government Operations committee  In the G7, I think is correct. There are two streams in the COVAX. One is for self-financing, which we were a part of. We've also contributed for other countries that are unable to pay for their own vaccines. Canada has been a major contributor there. We didn't draw from that p

Government Operations committee  I might just add very briefly, Chair, that neither Sputnik nor Sinopharm have come before the committee. The seven advance purchase agreements do include two adenovirus platforms, so the committee feels it's in good shape with a diversified platform.

Government Operations committee  I would very briefly add that the Defence Production Act and the restrictions it was putting on some of the exports from America biomanufacturing producers were known to us. As Joanne said, the early negotiations had always been to ensure the highest probability that we would get

Industry committee  The advice goes to the ministers from the task force co-chairs. There's not a formal letter back or direct acknowledgement of that advice by ministers. There have been a great number of announcements on the advice given and the decisions taken by the government to fund proposals

Industry committee  Madam Chair, these questions would be better answered directly by the minister, but I think I can say, generally speaking, that both the advice given and the action taken by the government have been extremely.... The task force has worked flat out. Advice has been given very quic

Industry committee  Perhaps the distinction is the following: The relationship that the National Research Council struck with CanSino Biologics was to support clinical trial work and then potentially to produce, under emergency pandemic conditions, vaccines that might be made available if those clin

Industry committee  Yes. It's a combination of scientific and technical advice being provided by the vaccine task force and then appropriate and thorough due diligence on financial management aspects of the firms that was carried out further by ISED, explaining in some cases the delay between advice

Industry committee  European countries and the U.K. don't have those barriers.

Industry committee  The manufacturing takes place.... For instance, AstraZeneca takes place in the U.K., and the U.K. authorized AstraZeneca prior to us. They received data from the firm, from the clinical trials, prior to Health Canada—

Industry committee  I might just mention that the issue is not so much procurement. The procurement started with advance procurement agreements as early as August 5. There was then the requirement that went right up through the fall. We were extremely successful, as Joanne and Mark have indicated—

Industry committee  The procurement is not the issue. The second step, as Joanne indicated, is the authorization. Those countries need to authorize those. Health Canada has authorized two. They're seriously considering two more and perhaps imminently passing judgment on those. All of those have bee

Industry committee  Many of these other countries had in-country capacity to produce the vaccines, and these countries authorized those vaccines earlier on. The combination of those two things allowed them to get out front. They also didn't meet the unforeseen delays in the delivery of the vaccine o