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Health Canada greenlights another COVID-19 vaccine candidate for human trials – CTV News

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TORONTO —
A Saskatchewan-developed COVID-19 vaccine candidate is the latest to be approved for human trials in Canada, and could be ready by the end of 2021, its backers say.

The vaccine candidate is one of two being developed by the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization (VIDO) at the University of Saskatchewan.

VIDO reported Tuesday that it has received authorization from Health Canada to begin a Phase 1 clinical trial through the Canadian Center for Vaccinology in Halifax.

Participants will be recruited shortly, VIDO said, with vaccinations starting in January. Volker Gerdts, director and CEO of VIDO, said in a statement that if the three-phase trials prove successful, VIDO’s vaccine candidate could be ready for use by late 2021.

Both of VIDO’s potential vaccines are what are known as protein subunit vaccines, meaning they are created out of specific parts of a dead germ, rather than a live virus or an entire dead germ. Subunit vaccines are often used to protect against hepatitis B, human papillomavirus, whooping cough and shingles, among other viruses and diseases.

Most of the leading vaccines in the race to stop COVID-19 are based on either viral vector or RNA technology. However, VIDO is not alone in developing a subunit vaccine. According to the World Health Organization, 18 of the 61 vaccine candidates that have reached the clinical trial stage are based on protein subunits – including the ones developed by Novavax and Sanofi, for which Canada has reserved 76 million doses and 72 million doses respectively.

Subunit vaccines are typically much simpler to mass-produce than RNA or viral vector vaccines, and do not require ultra-cold storage.

While dozens of potential treatments to mitigate or negate the effects of COVID-19 are in the midst of clinical trials in Canada, only a handful of vaccine candidates have been approved for trials.

In addition to the new VIDO trial, the list includes a vaccine candidate from Quebec-City based Medicago, which entered a combined Phase 2 and 3 trial this month after reporting successful results in early testing. The company said its vaccine candidate, which is unusual in that it is derived from “virus-like particles” found in plants, provoked an antibody response in 100 per cent of the trial subjects.

Toronto’s University Health Network is currently recruiting front-line workers in Ontario to test a potential COVID-19 vaccine that is also the subject of ongoing trials in Australia, Germany, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. Rounding out the list is CanSino’s Ad5-nCoV, which was approved in the spring to much fanfare but has been at a standstill since, because the promised shipments of the vaccine candidate from China never materialized.

Gerdts, who is leading the development of VIDO’s vaccine candidate, said it is important for the ongoing trials to continue, even though some vaccines developed outside Canada are closer to approval – and in the case of Pfizer’s vaccine, have already been approved here.

“COVID-19 is not going to go away,” he said.

“To have sustainable long-term vaccine access, I think it’s important for Canada to continue on with its own vaccines.”

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Netflix’s subscriber growth slows as gains from password-sharing crackdown subside

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Netflix on Thursday reported that its subscriber growth slowed dramatically during the summer, a sign the huge gains from the video-streaming service’s crackdown on freeloading viewers is tapering off.

The 5.1 million subscribers that Netflix added during the July-September period represented a 42% decline from the total gained during the same time last year. Even so, the company’s revenue and profit rose at a faster pace than analysts had projected, according to FactSet Research.

Netflix ended September with 282.7 million worldwide subscribers — far more than any other streaming service.

The Los Gatos, California, company earned $2.36 billion, or $5.40 per share, a 41% increase from the same time last year. Revenue climbed 15% from a year ago to $9.82 billion. Netflix management predicted the company’s revenue will rise at the same 15% year-over-year pace during the October-December period, slightly than better than analysts have been expecting.

The strong financial performance in the past quarter coupled with the upbeat forecast eclipsed any worries about slowing subscriber growth. Netflix’s stock price surged nearly 4% in extended trading after the numbers came out, building upon a more than 40% increase in the company’s shares so far this year.

The past quarter’s subscriber gains were the lowest posted in any three-month period since the beginning of last year. That drop-off indicates Netflix is shifting to a new phase after reaping the benefits from a ban on the once-rampant practice of sharing account passwords that enabled an estimated 100 million people watch its popular service without paying for it.

The crackdown, triggered by a rare loss of subscribers coming out of the pandemic in 2022, helped Netflix add 57 million subscribers from June 2022 through this June — an average of more than 7 million per quarter, while many of its industry rivals have been struggling as households curbed their discretionary spending.

Netflix’s gains also were propelled by a low-priced version of its service that included commercials for the first time in its history. The company still is only getting a small fraction of its revenue from the 2-year-old advertising push, but Netflix is intensifying its focus on that segment of its business to help boost its profits.

In a letter to shareholder, Netflix reiterated previous cautionary notes about its expansion into advertising, though the low-priced option including commercials has become its fastest growing segment.

“We have much more work to do improving our offering for advertisers, which will be a priority over the next few years,” Netflix management wrote in the letter.

As part of its evolution, Netflix has been increasingly supplementing its lineup of scripted TV series and movies with live programming, such as a Labor Day spectacle featuring renowned glutton Joey Chestnut setting a world record for gorging on hot dogs in a showdown with his longtime nemesis Takeru Kobayashi.

Netflix will be trying to attract more viewer during the current quarter with a Nov. 15 fight pitting former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson against Jake Paul, a YouTube sensation turned boxer, and two National Football League games on Christmas Day.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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