At Last, Canada Enters the Vaccine Business

 

A National Research Council facility in Montreal will be repurposed to produce the Novovax Covid vaccine. 

About time.

The Novovax product has received mixed reviews. Tests in the UK showed it 95% effective against "Covid Classic" and, including one variant, about 89% effective. Similar tests in South Africa found it 49% effective but, excluding the HIV positive test subjects, that rose to 60%.

The Novovax vaccine does not use messenger RNA of the main vaccines now in use but a process similar to vaccines for hepatitis and other viruses.

The Maryland-based company is working on a new version of the vaccine to be rolled out in the second quarter of this year that it hopes will be more effective against the emerging variants.

Toronto-based Providence Therapeutics is also nearing the test stage of a made-in-Canada, mRNA vaccine, using the same science behind the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. The downside is that the company is just beginning a 13-month test regime. The company has sought assistance from the federal government but that seems unsettled.

Comments

  1. LorneFebruary 2, 2021 at 10:35 AM

    I cant help but wonder how long it will take to set things up, Mound; I guess, therefore, that there will not be an election call until the fall.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Northern PoVFebruary 2, 2021 at 1:12 PM

      " that there will not be an election call until the fall."
      Good! As we are not allowed to have PR, minority gov't is next best thing.
      It saved us from Harper's worst in 2008/09 during the great recession and Jagmeet is holding Jr's toes to the fire these days.
      I am still pissed at Horgan for pulling the plug on our minority govt here.

      Delete
    2. The Disaffected LibFebruary 2, 2021 at 2:36 PM

      A seemingly knowledgeable commenter said the other day that July may be the target for having the plant up and running, Lorne. That date was bandied about in a National Research Council press release last summer. Beyond that, who knows? I expect a lot will depend on the Novavax vaccine. They're out of Maryland and it seems they may have targeted Canada first rather than trail behind the established competitors - Pfizer, Moderna, J&J.

      Delete
  2. The Disaffected LibFebruary 2, 2021 at 2:39 PM

    Apparently Novavax doesn't use the breakthrough mRNA technology. From CBC:

    The Novavax vaccine, now closer to joining Canada's COVID-19 inoculation program, differs from the two vaccines Canadians are currently receiving to guard against the respiratory illness, primarily because of how it's engineered to induce an immune response in the body.

    It's a protein subunit vaccine, meaning it uses nanoparticles of a lab-grown spike protein that mimics the natural spike protein on the surface of the novel coronavirus and which helps the virus bind to cells and cause infection.

    When the particles are injected into the body with an adjuvant — a compound that enhances immune response — the body learns to recognize and fight off the virus.

    Protein subunit vaccines don't elicit as strong an immune response as whole virus vaccines, so they often include an adjuvant. Novavax uses a proprietary adjuvant called Matrix-M, which is based on a type of compound found in many plants called a saponin. The company says it boosts the body's immune response and generates a bigger immune response with a lower dose.

    The tried-and-true method of making a custom copy of a virus spike protein has been used to develop vaccines against HPV, hepatitis B and influenza.

    The Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines, on the other hand, use a newer approach.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Bill MalcolmFebruary 2, 2021 at 3:34 PM

    In the sense of producing vaccine sometime, maybe this year but probably not, at last through a federal government-owned facility (presumably there's no hanky panky of private investment thus far not mentioned), I agree with the headline.

    Dept of Industry finally put out an update on the money they've invested in Medicago (adjuvant), Providence (mRNA) and others. Today! Golly. The little roach Champagne who's minister was as slippery as an eel on CBC Radio As It Happens tonight; you'd have thought he'd been awake enough to toot his own horn a bit louder before now. It must have escaped his tiny mind -- never heard such an evasive fast-talking bafflegabber. Carol Off really went after him on Providence and the six month delay between request for aid and the huge unbelievable five million bucks they actually ponied up last fall. Medicago by comparison is getting $175 million. Toronto/Calgary vs Quebec city, you get the picture. NRC has a huge campus on the Montreal Road in Ottawa, worked there and visited on business many times. Had no idea they had a place that could be repurposed in Quebec/Montreal. What was all this about domestic supply?

    https://www.canada.ca/en/innovation-science-economic-development/news/2021/02/backgrounder--government-of-canada-investments-in-covid-19-vaccines-and-biomanufacturing-capacity.html

    ReplyDelete
  4. TrailblazerFebruary 2, 2021 at 6:52 PM

    Things change by the hour.
    Covid is going to last longer than Coronation Street.

    https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/feb/02/single-dose-of-astrazeneca-vaccine-could-cut-transmission-by-67

    https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/02/health/russia-sputnik-v-phase-3-intl/index.html

    Perhaps Canada would do well to produce proven vaccine under licence..

    TB

    ReplyDelete
  5. Caillo Lisa June 26, 2021 at 10:33 AM

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