The first batch of Canada’s supply of the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine is set to arrive tomorrow — but public health officials still have some distribution issues to sort out before they can deliver those shots.
Health Canada approved the AstraZeneca product last Friday. The National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI), the independent panel that sets the guidelines for vaccine deployment, is not recommending that these shots be used in people aged 65 and over.
While Health Canada has determined the product is safe to use on all adults, NACI said there isn’t enough clinical trial data available to determine how effective this product is in preventing COVID-19 infection among people in this older cohort.
Health officials will be under pressure to quickly establish priorities for distribution of the AstraZeneca shots because 300,000 of the 500,000 doses set to arrive this week from the Serum Institute of India will expire in just a month’s time.
Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada’s chief public health officer, said NACI is prepared to update its guidance “as they see more and more real world data accumulating,” but for now the AstraZeneca product should be directed at younger Canadians.
“Don’t read their recommendations as sort of static. But this is what they’ve recommended at this point,” Tam said. “Just watch this space.”
It’s up to the provinces and territories to decide how to put these AstraZeneca shots to use. Some scheduling adjustments will be required because most jurisdictions are focused on vaccinating the elderly at this early stage of the immunization campaign.
Tam said some of the groups that were “potentially prioritized a little bit later on” will have a chance to get their shots earlier than planned because of the NACI guidance.
Most provinces have said that — after the elderly, front line health care workers and Indigenous adults are vaccinated — essential workers and people who face a greater risk of illness should be next in line for the second phase of shots.
Maj.-Gen. Dany Fortin, the military commander leading the federal government’s vaccine logistics, said the shots will be “expedited as quickly as possible” to prevent wastage.
WATCH: Procurement Minister Anita Anand says AstraZeneca shots will arrive Wednesday
Procurement Minister Anita Anand says the first shipment of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine is scheduled to arrive in Canada on March 3. 1:06
Asked why Canada purchased vaccines that are set to expire during the first week of April, Procurement Minister Anita Anand said the federal government was responding to demands from the provinces to acquire more shots.
“They have repeatedly told the federal government that they want vaccines as soon as possible and that they’re ready to administer vaccines,” she said.
With 20 million AstraZeneca doses on order, Anand said she is still negotiating with the company to determine how many shots will be delivered in the April through June period.
“We want to make sure we have confirmations from the company before we provide that information, of course,” she said.
At least 26.4 million more doses — 23 million from Moderna and Pfizer combined, 1.5 million AstraZeneca doses from the Serum Institute and another 1.9 million AstraZeneca doses from COVAX, the global vaccine-sharing initiative — are set to arrive between April and June.
All told, the country is projected to have enough supply to fully vaccinate at least 16.45 million people by Canada Day. The supply is expected to grow once delivery schedules for the AstraZeneca doses are confirmed.
U.S. President Joe Biden announced Tuesday that there will be enough vaccines on hand for every American by the end of May. Anand said Canada “remains on track” to secure enough vaccine doses for everyone who wants one “before the end of September.”
Three weeks ago, I announced we would have enough vaccine supply for all Americans by the end of July.<br><br>Now, with our efforts to ramp up production, we will have enough vaccines for every American by the end of May.
Canada is a vaccine laggard in the Western world right now; dozens of other countries have vaccinated more people per capita.
Beyond the question of who will get the AstraZeneca shot, there’s a debate over just how long people should wait between the first and second doses.
A nurse in Hungary shows packets of AstraZeneca-Oxford and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines (Attila Balazs/MTI via AP Photo)
NACI has recommended that provinces and territories follow the guidelines set by the manufacturers and approved by Health Canada regulators: 21 days between shots for the Pfizer product, 28 days for Moderna and between four and 12 weeks for the AstraZeneca doses.
Some provinces, notably Quebec, have ignored these guidelines from the beginning, preferring instead to administer as many first doses as possible to tamp down infection risk.
NACI ‘considering evidence’ on dosing intervals
Dr. Bonnie Henry, B.C.’s provincial health officer, announced Monday that the province would be extending the interval between doses for all three products to 16 weeks.
Tam said NACI is now “considering evidence” from the latest scientific studies about the intervals between shots and will provide an updated recommendation sometime this week.
Christine Elliott, Ontario’s health minister, said that while public health officials in her province have complied with NACI guidelines, they would shift gears to deploy first doses to more people if vaccine experts give them the green light to delay those second doses.
“We are anxiously awaiting NACI’s review of this to determine what they have to say and their recommendations,” Elliott said. “We want to make sure that the decisions that Ontario makes are based on science.”
Tam said data from B.C. and Quebec suggest there may be good reasons to wait longer.
“They’re vaccinating seniors in long-term care facilities and so on and we’re seeing quite a high level of protection. It also seems that the protection is obviously lasting even after the first dose,” she said.
In a recent analysis paper published in the New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Danuta Skowronski of the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control and Dr. Gaston De Serres from the Institut national de sante publique du Quebec suggested that a single shot of the Pfizer vaccine might be almost as good as two.
The doctors found that, by waiting two weeks after vaccination to start measuring the rate of new infections, researchers recorded 92 per cent fewer COVID-19 cases among those who had received a single dose of the vaccine compared to those who got a placebo.
“With such a highly protective first dose, the benefits derived from a scarce supply of vaccine could be maximized by deferring second doses until all priority group members are offered at least one dose,” the doctors wrote in their paper.
TOKYO (AP) — Japanese technology group SoftBank swung back to profitability in the July-September quarter, boosted by positive results in its Vision Fund investments.
Tokyo-based SoftBank Group Corp. reported Tuesday a fiscal second quarter profit of nearly 1.18 trillion yen ($7.7 billion), compared with a 931 billion yen loss in the year-earlier period.
Quarterly sales edged up about 6% to nearly 1.77 trillion yen ($11.5 billion).
SoftBank credited income from royalties and licensing related to its holdings in Arm, a computer chip-designing company, whose business spans smartphones, data centers, networking equipment, automotive, consumer electronic devices, and AI applications.
The results were also helped by the absence of losses related to SoftBank’s investment in office-space sharing venture WeWork, which hit the previous fiscal year.
WeWork, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2023, emerged from Chapter 11 in June.
SoftBank has benefitted in recent months from rising share prices in some investment, such as U.S.-based e-commerce company Coupang, Chinese mobility provider DiDi Global and Bytedance, the Chinese developer of TikTok.
SoftBank’s financial results tend to swing wildly, partly because of its sprawling investment portfolio that includes search engine Yahoo, Chinese retailer Alibaba, and artificial intelligence company Nvidia.
SoftBank makes investments in a variety of companies that it groups together in a series of Vision Funds.
The company’s founder, Masayoshi Son, is a pioneer in technology investment in Japan. SoftBank Group does not give earnings forecasts.
Shopify Inc. executives brushed off concerns that incoming U.S. President Donald Trump will be a major detriment to many of the company’s merchants.
“There’s nothing in what we’ve heard from Trump, nor would there have been anything from (Democratic candidate) Kamala (Harris), which we think impacts the overall state of new business formation and entrepreneurship,” Shopify’s chief financial officer Jeff Hoffmeister told analysts on a call Tuesday.
“We still feel really good about all the merchants out there, all the entrepreneurs that want to start new businesses and that’s obviously not going to change with the administration.”
Hoffmeister’s comments come a week after Trump, a Republican businessman, trounced Harris in an election that will soon return him to the Oval Office.
On the campaign trail, he threatened to impose tariffs of 60 per cent on imports from China and roughly 10 per cent to 20 per cent on goods from all other countries.
If the president-elect makes good on the promise, many worry the cost of operating will soar for companies, including customers of Shopify, which sells e-commerce software to small businesses but also brands as big as Kylie Cosmetics and Victoria’s Secret.
These merchants may feel they have no choice but to pass on the increases to customers, perhaps sparking more inflation.
If Trump’s tariffs do come to fruition, Shopify’s president Harley Finkelstein pointed out China is “not a huge area” for Shopify.
However, “we can’t anticipate what every presidential administration is going to do,” he cautioned.
He likened the uncertainty facing the business community to the COVID-19 pandemic where Shopify had to help companies migrate online.
“Our job is no matter what comes the way of our merchants, we provide them with tools and service and support for them to navigate it really well,” he said.
Finkelstein was questioned about the forthcoming U.S. leadership change on a call meant to delve into Shopify’s latest earnings, which sent shares soaring 27 per cent to $158.63 shortly after Tuesday’s market open.
The Ottawa-based company, which keeps its books in U.S. dollars, reported US$828 million in net income for its third quarter, up from US$718 million in the same quarter last year, as its revenue rose 26 per cent.
Revenue for the period ended Sept. 30 totalled US$2.16 billion, up from US$1.71 billion a year earlier.
Subscription solutions revenue reached US$610 million, up from US$486 million in the same quarter last year.
Merchant solutions revenue amounted to US$1.55 billion, up from US$1.23 billion.
Shopify’s net income excluding the impact of equity investments totalled US$344 million for the quarter, up from US$173 million in the same quarter last year.
Daniel Chan, a TD Cowen analyst, said the results show Shopify has a leadership position in the e-commerce world and “a continued ability to gain market share.”
In its outlook for its fourth quarter of 2024, the company said it expects revenue to grow at a mid-to-high-twenties percentage rate on a year-over-year basis.
“Q4 guidance suggests Shopify will finish the year strong, with better-than-expected revenue growth and operating margin,” Chan pointed out in a note to investors.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
TORONTO – RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust says it has cut almost 10 per cent of its staff as it deals with a slowdown in the condo market and overall pushes for greater efficiency.
The company says the cuts, which amount to around 60 employees based on its last annual filing, will mean about $9 million in restructuring charges and should translate to about $8 million in annualized cash savings.
The job cuts come as RioCan and others scale back condo development plans as the market softens, but chief executive Jonathan Gitlin says the reductions were from a companywide efficiency effort.
RioCan says it doesn’t plan to start any new construction of mixed-use properties this year and well into 2025 as it adjusts to the shifting market demand.
The company reported a net income of $96.9 million in the third quarter, up from a loss of $73.5 million last year, as it saw a $159 million boost from a favourable change in the fair value of investment properties.
RioCan reported what it says is a record-breaking 97.8 per cent occupancy rate in the quarter including retail committed occupancy of 98.6 per cent.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
