Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced today that the promising COVID-19 vaccine candidate from Massachusetts-based Moderna will be available in Canada by the end of the month if the shot secures the necessary regulatory approvals.
Health Canada regulators are in the final stages of the review process for this vaccine. A final decision on authorization could come as early as this week.
If it’s approved, Trudeau said, Canada will receive up to 168,000 doses of the two-dose Moderna vaccine before the end of December. Trudeau said deliveries are slated to begin within 48 hours of Health Canada’s authorization.
“As with the early shipments of the Pfizer vaccine, this moves us even further forward on getting Canadians protected as quickly as possible,” Trudeau said. “We are very, very well positioned.”
With recent polls showing that a sizeable number of Canadians will refuse a vaccine altogether, or will wait some time before lining up for a shot, Trudeau said he wants Canadians to be assured that the science will not be rushed and Canada’s regulators will only approve a product that works.
“The approval of vaccines is not a political issue. Experts at Health Canada will do their jobs, and this is what they do for all drugs and vaccines in normal times,” he said in French. “The work has to be done without being compromised.”
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration will hear Thursday from an outside advisory panel on whether the vaccine is safe for use in the United States. FDA’s own scientists today endorsed it as safe and effective.
The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was approved by Health Canada regulators last week and vaccinations started in some provinces yesterday — but its stringent temperature requirements for storage mean the shot isn’t the best fit for much of the country.
Northern, rural and remote communities simply don’t have the health care infrastructure to safely store the Pfizer vaccine at ultra-low temperatures.
The Moderna product must be kept at -20 C — many degrees above the -70 to -80 C range that Pfizer demands for its shot — and there are more commercial-grade refrigerators on hand across the country that can store this vaccine.
Because the territories will not receive the Pfizer vaccine, Trudeau said the first Moderna doses will be directed to northern regions, remote and Indigenous communities. He said this vaccine is easier to ship over long distances in winter conditions.
“We are working to ensure the logistics planning is ready when vaccines are available, and have already shipped medical-grade freezers to the north. As soon as we get the green light, we’ll be ready to go,” Trudeau said.
Trudeau also said today that Canada will receive about 200,000 more Pfizer shots next week, while the number of sites where this temperature-sensitive shot can be administered will increase from just 14 this week to 70.
In total, six million Moderna and Pfizer vaccines are expected to be delivered to Canada by the end of March 2021.
Long-term care and retirement home residents and staff, the elderly, front line health care workers and some Indigenous adults will receive shots in this first phase of distribution. The vaccination campaign for other populations will begin in April.
Maj.- Gen. Dany Fortin, the military commander leading vaccination logistics at the Public Health Agency of Canada, said Canada is ready to receive the Moderna product and planning is already “well underway” to ensure the provinces and territories are well-positioned to begin administering the shot.
“This week, we’re executing a dry run exercise, similar to what we did last week with the Pfizer product,” Fortin said.
Unlike the Pfizer vaccine, which is being delivered directly by the company to points of use, the federal government will be responsible for the logistics associated with importing the Moderna shot and distributing the product to the provinces and territories.
“That is work that is going on now to ensure that the logistics are in place to go and pick up the Moderna vaccine,” Public Services and Procurement Minister Anita Anand said.
Moderna, which has never produced a vaccine on this scale, is working with multiple partners to produce its vaccine. Switzerland-based Lonza, one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical services companies, will produce the key active ingredient for the vaccine in New Hampshire and Switzerland.
Canada has ordered 40 million Moderna shots
In August, Canada placed an order for 20 million doses of the Moderna product. Earlier this month, Anand announced the government would exercise its contractual options for 20 million more shots in 2021. Canada could still buy up to another 16 million doses.
Trudeau attributed the December shipments of the Moderna vaccine to Canada’s early commitment to buy the product.
“Like the co-founder of Moderna pointed out a few weeks ago, Canada was among the first to pre-order their vaccine. That, combined with our solid plan on vaccine rollout, is why we have an agreement for early doses,” he said.
Health Canada has been reviewing Moderna’s clinical trial data on a rolling basis since Oct. 12.
The rolling review process — a policy shift implemented because of the urgency of this pandemic — allows drug makers to bypass the lengthy timelines they normally face when launching a new vaccine.
The company’s final clinical trial data are encouraging, demonstrating that the vaccine is 94.1 per cent effective at preventing COVID-19 and 100 per cent effective at preventing severe cases of the disease.
In July, Moderna began administering its vaccine and a placebo to 30,000 clinical trial participants in the U.S.
Of the 15,000 people who received the vaccine, only 11 developed COVID-19. None of those 11 people became severely ill. Among the 15,000 people who received the placebo — a shot of saline that does nothing — 185 developed the novel coronavirus. Thirty of those 185 patients reported severe illness and one died.
Health Canada is currently reviewing other vaccines from companies like AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson’s pharmaceutical division, Janssen.
In total, Canada has ordered roughly 418 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines from seven different companies — an insurance policy against the risk that some of the vaccines in development prove to be ineffective.
TORONTO – Roots Corp. may have built its brand on all things comfy and cosy, but its CEO says activewear is now “really becoming a core part” of the brand.
The category, which at Roots spans leggings, tracksuits, sports bras and bike shorts, has seen such sustained double-digit growth that Meghan Roach plans to make it a key part of the business’ future.
“It’s an area … you will see us continue to expand upon,” she told analysts on a Friday call.
The Toronto-based retailer’s push into activewear has taken shape over many years and included several turns as the official designer and supplier of Team Canada’s Olympic uniform.
But consumers have had plenty of choice when it comes to workout gear and other apparel suited to their sporting needs. On top of the slew of athletic brands like Nike and Adidas, shoppers have also gravitated toward Lululemon Athletica Inc., Alo and Vuori, ramping up competition in the activewear category.
Roach feels Roots’ toehold in the category stems from the fit, feel and following its merchandise has cultivated.
“Our product really resonates with (shoppers) because you can wear it through multiple different use cases and occasions,” she said.
“We’ve been seeing customers come back again and again for some of these core products in our activewear collection.”
Her remarks came the same day as Roots revealed it lost $5.2 million in its latest quarter compared with a loss of $5.3 million in the same quarter last year.
The company said the second-quarter loss amounted to 13 cents per diluted share for the quarter ended Aug. 3, the same as a year earlier.
In presenting the results, Roach reminded analysts that the first half of the year is usually “seasonally small,” representing just 30 per cent of the company’s annual sales.
Sales for the second quarter totalled $47.7 million, down from $49.4 million in the same quarter last year.
The move lower came as direct-to-consumer sales amounted to $36.4 million, down from $37.1 million a year earlier, as comparable sales edged down 0.2 per cent.
The numbers reflect the fact that Roots continued to grapple with inventory challenges in the company’s Cooper fleece line that first cropped up in its previous quarter.
Roots recently began to use artificial intelligence to assist with daily inventory replenishments and said more tools helping with allocation will go live in the next quarter.
Beyond that time period, the company intends to keep exploring AI and renovate more of its stores.
It will also re-evaluate its design ranks.
Roots announced Friday that chief product officer Karuna Scheinfeld has stepped down.
Rather than fill the role, the company plans to hire senior level design talent with international experience in the outdoor and activewear sectors who will take on tasks previously done by the chief product officer.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
VANCOUVER – Mediated talks between the union representing HandyDART workers in Metro Vancouver and its employer, Transdev, are set to resume today as a strike that has stopped most services drags into a second week.
No timeline has been set for the length of the negotiations, but Joe McCann, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1724, says they are willing to stay there as long as it takes, even if talks drag on all night.
About 600 employees of the door-to-door transit service for people unable to navigate the conventional transit system have been on strike since last Tuesday, pausing service for all but essential medical trips.
Hundreds of drivers rallied outside TransLink’s head office earlier this week, calling for the transportation provider to intervene in the dispute with Transdev, which was contracted to oversee HandyDART service.
Transdev said earlier this week that it will provide a reply to the union’s latest proposal on Thursday.
A statement from the company said it “strongly believes” that their employees deserve fair wages, and that a fair contract “must balance the needs of their employees, clients and taxpayers.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
MONTREAL – Travel company Transat AT Inc. reported a loss in its latest quarter compared with a profit a year earlier as its revenue edged lower.
The parent company of Air Transat says it lost $39.9 million or $1.03 per diluted share in its quarter ended July 31.
The result compared with a profit of $57.3 million or $1.49 per diluted share a year earlier.
Revenue in what was the company’s third quarter totalled $736.2 million, down from $746.3 million in the same quarter last year.
On an adjusted basis, Transat says it lost $1.10 per share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of $1.10 per share a year earlier.
Transat chief executive Annick Guérard says demand for leisure travel remains healthy, as evidenced by higher traffic, but consumers are increasingly price conscious given the current economic uncertainty.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
