Thousands of COVID-19 vaccines are set to expire in Canada this week, with pharmacists in Ontario raising concern about wastage amid hesitancy to mix different doses.
In Ontario alone, “several thousand” doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine will expire on Aug. 6, said Justin Bates, CEO of the Ontario Pharmacists Association (OPA).
“It’s an unfortunate set of circumstances,” he said in an interview with Global News on Monday.
The vaccine supplies come in their frozen state each week and once they are delivered to a pharmacy and thawed, there is a 30-day window for the doses to be used — or they have to be disposed of.
Bates said they were looking at transferring some doses to pharmacies in other parts of the health-care system so they don’t have to throw them away.
“We’re going to use every tool we have to avoid wastage, but the reality is that we’re going to see some wastage starting Aug. 6.”
2:30 Expiry date for thousands of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine doses extended
Expiry date for thousands of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine doses extended – May 29, 2021
The government in Newfoundland and Labrador was able to transfer 1,400 doses of AstraZeneca to Ontario in mid-May for use there as they neared their expiry date. However, the province had 2,848 doses of the vaccine expire at the end of June. Nearly 2,900 doses were wasted in July.
Prince Edward Island also disposed of 3,200 expired doses of AstraZeneca, the province announced last month.
But the national wastage rate so far has been “very minimal and far below initial estimates,” according to the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC).
As of July 12, less than 0.05 per cent of total doses delivered by the federal government have been wasted, PHAC told Global News.
The boost in vaccine supply coupled with dropping vaccination rates has left unused doses nearing expiration data, said Dr. Gerald Evans, an infectious diseases specialist at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont.
“We’re now into that smaller group, which … has been a little bit reluctant (to get vaccinated) up until now,” he said.
Hesitancy around the Moderna vaccine and mixing doses has led to a lot of cancellations and no-shows at pharmacies, said Bates, adding that people demand Pfizer over Moderna.
According to NACI, people who have received a first dose of an mRNA vaccine should be offered the same vaccine for their second dose, but mRNA vaccines can be interchangeable if the same product is not readily available for the second dose.
1:44 Health officials allay concerns about mixing mRNA vaccines
Health officials allay concerns about mixing mRNA vaccines – Jun 21, 2021
The so-called “brand hesitancy” is also present in Alberta, where an Edmonton pharmacist said that he’s noticed roughly 40 per cent of customers have turned down the Moderna vaccine after a first dose of Pfizer.
Evans said while both the mRNA vaccines are equally effective, Pfizer has done a “really good job of branding itself.”
“It’s not so much that Moderna has a bad name, it’s just that Pfizer has really dominated the market in mRNA vaccines.”
As for mixing doses, he said there was evidence in several studies that backed the strategy used by Canada and in Europe, adding it “was not an inferior approach.”
Amid wastage concerns, Evans said Canada should look towards either donating vaccines to other countries facing financial issues or other constraints.
Selling them to nations like Australia, which has seen a spike in cases recently and is short on vaccine supply, is another option.
“If we have large quantities like that, we should be right now talking to other countries.”
Provinces should also try to send doses that haven’t been thawed yet to other regions where there is a shortage in supply, he said.
Bill Campbell, a spokesperson for the Ontario Ministry of Health, told Global News on Monday that the province was “working with federal partners to explore vaccine donation opportunities in the future”.
2:14 Will Canadians need third COVID-19 vaccine dose?
Will Canadians need third COVID-19 vaccine dose?
According to Bates, one strategy to avoid wastage would be to start offering a third booster dose to seniors, high-risk populations of morbidities and immunocompromised people.
“That’s a scenario that we’re asking the Ministry of Health to explore and move on quickly,” he said.
But some experts are skeptical about the lack of clinical evidence when it comes to booster shots.
Dr. Theresa Tam, the chief public health officer of Canada, told reporters during a virtual news conference on July 30, that even though the evidence is quickly “evolving,” there’s “not enough data” to support it quite yet – despite countries like Israel pushing ahead with a vaccination top-up.
“There’s not enough data to suggest that in Canada we would go into boosting as of yet,” she said. “But it is something that we’re watching very carefully.”
— with files from Global News’ Sean O’Shea, Chris Chacon and the Canadian Press.
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.
