e-3627 (Foreign affairs)

Response to parts 4 and 5

At the outset of the pandemic, Canada had few available facilities to produce vaccines and therapies and none that was equipped to work with emerging technologies at scales that would rapidly meet the needs of the population. In part, this was due to years of divestment by pharmaceutical companies and their consolidation of production in other countries.  A review in 2020 found that there was insufficient capacity to pivot to produce, at population scale, the leading COVID-19 vaccines under development. 

In this context, the Government moved quickly to invest in, and commit significant longer-term funding towards the revitalization of Canada’s biomanufacturing and life sciences sector. The early efforts across the industry and health portfolios coalesced in the launch of Canada’s Biomanufacturing and Life Sciences Strategy (BLSS) in 2021. Since 2020, the Government has invested over $2.2 billion in 38 projects to support biomanufacturing facilities, vaccine development, and therapeutic development. To date, the Government has made contributions towards or agreements with manufacturers with capabilities spanning medium-to-large-scale mRNA production, cell culture manufacturing for the production of products that could include antibodies, protein-based vaccines, or viral vectors at commercial scale or for later-stage clinical trials, influenza vaccine manufacturing capacity, and medium-to-large scale fill and finish capacity. These include contract manufacturing organizations such as Resilience Biotechnologies, BioVectra, and the Biologics Manufacturing Centre at the National Research Council’s Montreal campus. 

Given that the next pandemic or health emergency is likely to look entirely different from the COVID-19 pandemic, Canada must be prepared with capacity to develop and produce medical countermeasures to respond to a range of health threats. This is why the Government has been investing in a range of technology platforms to develop a diversified base that will be capable of responding to a variety unknown, future threats.  

In addition to investing in manufacturing capacity for industry, in May 2024, the Government announced nearly $574 million in funding for 19 projects at 14 research institutions across Canada, through Stage 2 of the integrated Canada Biomedical Research Fund (CBRF) and Biosciences Research Infrastructure Fund (BRIF) research hubs competition. The hubs, centred at five Canadian universities, combine the strengths of postsecondary institutions, research hospitals, industry, and the not-for-profit sector to jointly improve health emergency preparedness by strengthening research capacity and leveraging collaborations across the entire biomanufacturing ecosystem.

Recognizing the need to continue to address the priorities of the BLSS and build upon the progress made to date, Budget 2023 stated that Canada will explore new ways to be more efficient and effective in the development and production of vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostic tools by consulting with experts on how to organize Canada’s readiness for future health emergencies. As part of this work, the Government is considering how to best position Government support for health emergency readiness objectives moving forward. Charting a path on which Canada is better equipped to respond to the real, pressing threats of the future requires ongoing monitoring of the sector’s capacity, needs, and promising medical countermeasures under development. 

As a core driver of all of the work that has been undertaken to date, Canada remains committed to global health objectives. The 2021 G7 Summit Communiqué from Carbis Bay stated that member countries would, “create the appropriate frameworks to strengthen collective defences against threats to global health by: increasing and coordinating on global manufacturing capacity on all continents; improving early warning systems; and support science in a mission to shorten the cycle for the development of safe and effective vaccines, treatments and tests from 300 to 100 days.”

The end result of the Government’s efforts is that Canada will be better prepared to face future pandemics through a renewed Canadian industry that will both protect Canadians against the next public health emergency and have the capacity to contribute to international efforts to safeguard global populations.

Part 1 - Between February 2020 and May 2023, the Government of Canada committed close to $3.5 billion in international assistance in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. As a leading international donor to the global response, Canada contributed over $2.1 billion for the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT)-Accelerator and its partners. This included over $1.2 billion to the ACT-Accelerator Vaccines Pillar to promote equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines in low-and lower-middle income countries (LMICs). As part of Canada’s allocation to the ACT-Accelerator Vaccines Pillar, Canada provided $840 million for the COVID-19 Vaccine Global Access (COVAX) Facility to procure, distribute and deliver COVID-19 vaccines for Advance Market Commitment (AMC) countries, all of them LMICs. This included up to $10 million to design and implement COVAX’s dose sharing mechanism, which made it possible for donor countries to share over 922 million doses.

In response to global calls for support to enhance COVID-19 vaccine roll-out, Canada launched Canada’s Global Initiative for Vaccine Equity (CanGIVE), a $317 million signature initiative to bolster vaccine delivery, strengthen health systems and increase regional vaccine manufacturing capacity. Canada’s ongoing support to scale up regional vaccine production capacity will bring manufacturing closer to populations in LMICs. As the world moves beyond pandemic response, Canada remains committed to strengthening health systems and pandemic preparedness in low- and lower-middle income countries as part of an inclusive and sustainable recovery.

Part 2 - On June 17, 2022, Ministers at the twelfth World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial Conference (MC12) reached consensus on the Ministerial Decision on the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). The Decision, also known as the “TRIPS waiver”, enables developing country WTO Members to authorize the use of patent-protected COVID-19 vaccines without the consent of the patent holder to address the pandemic. Canada was pleased to see the international community come together at MC12 to find a multilateral solution on the TRIPS waiver, as part of the broader WTO Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic. Canada has long recognized and promoted the importance of balance in intellectual property frameworks that provide incentives for innovation while ensuring that WTO Members can continue to pursue important public policy objectives like public health. In this regard, and further to the TRIPS waiver, Canada continues to support a range of near-term solutions to enhance immunization, including measures contemplated under the WTO Response to the COVID-19 pandemic, such as to address supply chain constraints and export restrictions. This is in addition to Canada’s support for the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator and the COVAX Facility. Collectively, these ongoing efforts continue to support a robust, multifaceted, and global effort to address the pandemic and ensure a speedy and just recovery worldwide.

The Ministerial Decision on the TRIPS Agreement has a five-year duration, and also committed the WTO TRIPS Council to decide whether to extend the TRIPS waiver to cover the production and supply of COVID-19 diagnostics and therapeutics. Canada and other WTO Members continue to engage in evidence-based exchanges in the TRIPS Council, including under ongoing discussions on the topic of “Intellectual Property, COVID-19, and Pandemic Preparedness”, with a view to identifying whether Members have experienced Intellectual Property-related challenges responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, related to or arising from the TRIPS Agreement.

Part 3 - In response to supply challenges across the world throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Canada recognized the need for countries to share surplus vaccine doses. As part of our contribution to COVAX, Canada provided Gavi up to $10 million to establish and operationalize a mechanism within the Facility so countries could share doses that had been declared surplus. The mechanism became operational in April 2021 and, through the end of 2023, dose donations accounted for nearly 50% of doses delivered by COVAX Facility.

To further support equitable access, in 2022, Canada committed to donating the equivalent of 200 million doses by the end of the year. Canada exceeded this commitment, donating the equivalent of over 201 million doses, a significant contribution that helped meet country demand for vaccines. This donation included 46.6 million doses deemed surplus from Canada’s domestic supply and donated to COVAX, as well as more than 3.7 million doses donated directly to countries through bilateral agreements. In addition, Canada provided financial contributions to COVAX towards the purchase of the equivalent of 150.7 million vaccine doses for low- and middle-income countries.