Health Canada is expected to make a decision on the AstraZeneca/Oxford University COVID-19 vaccine any day with an extra 1.1 million doses to be delivered by the end of March pending that approval. Several European nations are already discouraging its use among seniors, citing a lack of data.
When asked about the efficacy in older adults the day before, Canada’s deputy chief public health officer Dr. Howard Njoo said that Health Canada will review the data as it becomes available.
Earlier this week, AstraZeneca reported that a primary analysis of its Phase 3 trials showed an overall efficacy rate of 76 per cent after the first dose and 82 per cent after the second.
The two vaccines currently approved in Canada, the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA vaccines, both have efficacy rates around 95 per cent.
“We’ve been spoiled, our expectations have been set at that really, really impossibly high level and everything else is a disappointment,” said Dr. Alan Bernstein, CEO of CIFAR and member of the federal COVID-19 Vaccine Task Force.
“But, you know, 75 per cent is pretty good in real life.”
France, Sweden, Germany, Italy, and Poland have all issued recommendations stating the vaccine should be prioritized for adults under the age of 65, 60 — or even 55 in the case of Italy — according to Politico Europe and France 24.
In its decision, the EMA said most of the participants in AstraZeneca’s trials were between 18 and 55 and it needed more results in older participants “to provide a figure for how well the vaccine will work in this group” but it went on to say that “protection is expected.”
Director of geriatrics at Sinai Health System in Toronto, Dr. Samir Sinha, said his view is that Canadians should “get the vaccine that you can get your hands on as soon as possible because as soon as most of us are vaccinated, the more community protection we have and the better off we’re all going to be.”
Bernstein echoed those sentiments, adding “they all look very effective.”
He also explained that efficacy is just one factor — though a very important one — in deciding what makes a good vaccine.
6:08 The science of vaccines
The science of vaccines – Jan 16, 2020
What is vaccine effectiveness?
Vaccine effectiveness and vaccine efficacy are actually slightly different, as explained by Bernstein.
Story continues below advertisement
Efficacy refers to the results from a controlled trial whereas effectiveness reflects how it performs in the “real world,” though both terms tend to be used interchangeably outside of academic settings.
“The reason it’s distinguished from a trial is trials are not in a sense ‘real-life’ in that the companies will choose volunteers that are healthy beforehand or try to choose volunteers that are healthy beforehand,” he explained.
He said it’s not that companies are “fudging the results” but that they don’t want results to be “confounded by people who are already very ill.”
In Phase 3 of a vaccine trial, scientists compare the results from a group of people who’ve received the vaccine to a group of people who have received a placebo.
“If 100 people got infected in the non-vaccinated group, we then looked over to the vaccinated group. We say, ‘OK, well, if all these people were circulating in the same community, there should be at least 100 people who could have gotten infected in the vaccinated group,’” Sinha explained.
“And when we find out that only five actually got infected, it tells us then that that vaccine is 95 per cent effective.”
Story continues below advertisement
Sinha adds that 95 per cent effectiveness, for example, doesn’t mean that 95 people out of 100 people are protected, but rather that “it’s up to 95 per cent effective in every one of us who gets that vaccine. We just don’t know who might be the person, for example, who doesn’t have that level of effectiveness.”
“If we give you the vaccine, can your body respond to that vaccine to give you the protection that you need to fight off COVID?”
What impacts vaccine effectiveness?
The same weakened immune system that makes the elderly more susceptible to the virus is also what makes them less likely to have a robust response to vaccines.
“We’re all different genetically, which means we have different responses genetically in our immune system to insults like viruses. And some people overreact, some people underreact, and some people are in the sweet spot of reacting just right,” Bernstein explained.
“It’s possible that different ethnic groups, that people of colour, will respond differently to the virus or to the vaccine or both. And that has not been studied that carefully actually, yet.”
While everyone’s immune system is a little bit different, Sinha says typically young and healthy people have a “good, robust immune system.” Age or illness, for example, can weaken the immune system.
The fact that the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines appear to be as effective in older people as in younger people actually surprised Sinha.
“It must be this mRNA technology that actually helps to boost the immune systems of older people in such a way that they get the same level of protection as younger people,” he suggested.
“What we might see over time is other more traditional vaccine technologies, they may not be able to boost the immune system of older people or other more immunocompromised people to the same level.”
It’s possible, Sinha says, that we may get to a point where health care professionals would select a vaccine based on how well a particular person is likely to respond to it.
“And right now, for my older patients, I would highly recommend they get the Moderna or Pfizer vaccination because they seem to be 95 per cent effective.”
2:44 Coronavirus: U.K. trial to test combining Pfizer, AstraZeneca vaccines in 2-shot regimen
Coronavirus: U.K. trial to test combining Pfizer, AstraZeneca vaccines in 2-shot regimen
What else makes a good vaccine?
Outside of efficacy in preventing illness, Bernstein says the two other properties that matter are how long protection lasts and what impact the vaccine has on transmission.
Story continues below advertisement
“So let’s say you have two vaccines, one’s 70 and one’s 90 per cent effective in the trials, but the one that’s 70 per cent lasts for five years, the one that’s 90 only lasts for six months,” he said as a hypothetical example.
“Which is a better vaccine?”
Sinha says that vaccines approved so far have been shown to significantly protect people from getting sick and dying but more data is needed to determine “if it can actually prevent your ability to transmit the virus to another person.”
Data released earlier this week from AstraZeneca showed that the viral load “in the body of people who were vaccinated is lower than in the placebo group,” which Bernstein says would be “consistent but not proof that it may be transmission is lower from person to person.”
In addition to the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, Bernstein expects that the AstraZeneca, Novavax, and Johnson & Johnson/Janssen vaccines will be approved in Canada.
“And that’s not meant to influence Health Canada because I can’t. But that’s my own view, looking at the data — and the regulators will see more data than we have seen, than I have seen. They’ll see every little scrap of data,” he explained.
Story continues below advertisement
“There may be things there that are, you know, deal-killers. But I think based on what we know and what the companies have released, I would say that all three will be approved.”
— With files from Global News’ Emerald Bensadoun and Reuters.
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.
