Health committee  No, we didn't. We understand the government and Medicago had confidential obligations, but we discussed.... We can't disclose the details without prior consent from the other party. We discussed with PSPC to what extent we or they could disclose. We have never requested to hold back that information.

Health committee  Yes, sir. As of 2020, we made a SIF agreement with ISED.

Health committee  No, $173 million was the amount contracted then.

Health committee  No, it's not correct. I'm not aware of it.

Health committee  We discussed it, along with our shareholders, with ISED intensively. We agreed, after good-faith negotiations, that we would repay the amount owing to the Canadian government, which included $40 million cash and our transfer of key R and D assets, including intellectual property.

Health committee  The contribution from ISED was for COVID-19 vaccine development and the establishment of the manufacturing facility. We developed a COVID-19 vaccine and got it approved by Health Canada. We spent our contribution from the government for that developmental work. In order to settle the agreement, given where we were, we agreed to the settlement, which included the repayment of $40 million and transfer of the assets.

Health committee  I'm not able to disclose further details of the settlement.

Health committee  We have to be very clear that you are talking about a $150-million advance payment under the APA with PSPC. The other contract is a SIF agreement with ISED. The two agreements are different, sir.

Health committee  I want to be clear that we had two agreements with the Canadian government. We acted in good faith to fulfill both of the agreements where possible. If we could not, we followed the termination clause of the agreement, or we discussed the situation in good faith. For this agreement, we agreed, as I said, to terminate or settle the agreement by repaying cash and transferring the assets.

Health committee  We made the transfer to Aramis at the request of ISED.

Health committee  Thank you for the question. Our plants in North Carolina are relatively bigger commercial plants. It's not the core of the research and development and the IP. All IP is controlled by our operations in Quebec. We transferred our key R and D assets from the pilot plant in Quebec, our intellectual property assets and our equipment to Aramis, but the plants in North Carolina, which we are using for commercial production, are not a part of the transaction.

Health committee  They are leased plants, so we are negotiating with landlords to terminate the lease.

Health committee  It is a plant-based vaccine manufacturing facility, with the same products and the same technology.

Health committee  They can't really, because this is plant-based VLP. Even though we showed IP, it's not easy. They need established know-how to produce it. Even if you are given equipment or a building, no one can produce the product we produce, based on the IP and technologies. The IP, which we have protected so far, has been transferred to Aramis.

Health committee  We have no idea.