OTTAWA — Health Canada is on track to give the green light to a third COVID-19 vaccine within the next two weeks and a fourth may not be far behind, offering a glimmer of hope at the end of a week of nothing but vaccine vexation.
Eric Morrissette, chief of media relations at Health Canada, said Friday the regulatory team that has been reviewing an application from AstraZeneca since Oct. 1, is now doing its final assessment of the vaccine’s clinical data.
It’s a back-and-forth process with the manufacturer answering any questions the review team has.
AstraZeneca was the first to apply for approval for a COVID-19 vaccine in Canada and has been greenlit in 15 jurisdictions including the United Kingdom, Mexico, India, and as of Friday, the entire European Union.
Dr. Supriya Sharma, Health Canada’s chief medical adviser, said earlier this month the review was “a bit more complicated” because in AstraZeneca’s trials, some volunteers only received a half dose at first.
A big trial underway in the United States is supposed to provide more clarity, but Morrissette said Friday that trial won’t report findings until March and Health Canada’s team has decided it has all the clinical data it needs. It also has all the information it needs on the manufacturing processes.
A fourth vaccine could be close at hand as well, after Johnson and Johnson reported Friday that Phase 3 clinical trial results — typically the last before a drug is approved for wide use — showed its vaccine is about 85 per cent effective against serious illness from COVID-19. Johnson and Johnson, which submitted an application to Canada for approval Nov. 30, offers the only single-dose vaccine thus far.
Health Canada approved Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine on Dec. 9. and Moderna’s on Dec. 23, each time about three weeks after Phase 3 trial results were publicly reported.
Canada has pre-ordered 10 million doses from Johnson and Johnson with the potential to get 28 million more, and 20 million doses from AstraZeneca. But the federal government has not said when those doses would be delivered, and recent days have shown deliveries for COVID-19 vaccines are constantly subject to change.
Moderna became the third vaccine-maker in two weeks Friday, to announce production delays will cut into its upcoming deliveries.
The Massachusetts-based biotech firm shipped more than 340,000 doses to Canada in the last month, but next week’s shipment is getting cut by about one-fifth, or 50,000 fewer doses, because of slower-than-expected production of the drug components by Moderna’s manufacturing partner, Lonza. Similar reductions are affecting Europe.
Moderna’s Canadian country manager Patricia Gauthier said the company will ship all two millions doses its contract stipulates by the end of March. Canada bought 40 million doses from Moderna overall, with most of them contracted to arrive between April 1 and Sept. 30.
Canada’s budding vaccination effort shrivelled this week when a temporary production slowdown caused Pfizer and BioNTech to cancel an entire shipment of more than 208,000 doses, after cutting last week’s shipment by about 20 per cent. The next two weeks’ deliveries will be cut by about 80 per cent before mostly being restored the week of Feb. 15.
Pfizer is also now asking Canada to agree each of its vials contains six doses, rather than five, which would allow it to ultimately ship fewer vials to meet its obligation of four million doses by the end of March, and 40 million by the fall.
AstraZeneca is cutting deliveries to Europe by 60 per cent through the end of March because of production problems in Belgium. That, coupled with Pfizer’s delays, prompted the European Union to require vaccine makers to report on how many doses are being produced and exported from Europe.
All of Canada’s Pfizer and Moderna vaccine doses are made in Europe. Canadian officials won’t say where Canada’s doses from AstraZeneca are to be made, but insist they will be unaffected by the European production problems.
Canada is not among more than 120 countries exempted on paper from the export controls, but Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen assured him in a phone call Wednesday that the export controls won’t affect Canada.
Despite the production hiccups, Trudeau insisted Friday Canada’s vaccine program is on track, noting production problems when the world is trying to build manufacturing lines for new products in massive demand are not a surprise.
Canada’s current vaccination plan says there will be three million people vaccinated by the end of March and another 10 million by the end of June, and that anyone else who wants to be immunized will be by the end of September.
Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole said the government needs to be more transparent about its vaccine contracts. Canada has contracts with seven COVID-19 vaccine-makers but has never published any details, including prices or delivery timelines.
The United States released redacted versions of contracts it has, and the European Commission Friday released a redacted AstraZeneca contract and said it wants to release the rest as soon as possible. It has to negotiate doing so with the companies.
Trudeau said Friday Canada will try to do that too but won’t jeopardize getting vaccines to Canadians as quickly as possible.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 29, 2021.
Mia Rabson, The Canadian Press
Note to readers: This is a corrected story. An earlier version said the manufacturing data for Astrazeneca was still to be submitted.
HALIFAX – The Nova Scotia government says it could be months before it reveals how many people are on the wait-list for a family doctor.
The head of the province’s health authority told reporters Wednesday that the government won’t release updated data until the 160,000 people who were on the wait-list in June are contacted to verify whether they still need primary care.
Karen Oldfield said Nova Scotia Health is working on validating the primary care wait-list data before posting new numbers, and that work may take a matter of months. The most recent public wait-list figures are from June 1, when 160,234 people, or about 16 per cent of the population, were on it.
“It’s going to take time to make 160,000 calls,” Oldfield said. “We are not talking weeks, we are talking months.”
The interim CEO and president of Nova Scotia Health said people on the list are being asked where they live, whether they still need a family doctor, and to give an update on their health.
A spokesperson with the province’s Health Department says the government and its health authority are “working hard” to turn the wait-list registry into a useful tool, adding that the data will be shared once it is validated.
Nova Scotia’s NDP are calling on Premier Tim Houston to immediately release statistics on how many people are looking for a family doctor. On Tuesday, the NDP introduced a bill that would require the health minister to make the number public every month.
“It is unacceptable for the list to be more than three months out of date,” NDP Leader Claudia Chender said Tuesday.
Chender said releasing this data regularly is vital so Nova Scotians can track the government’s progress on its main 2021 campaign promise: fixing health care.
The number of people in need of a family doctor has more than doubled between the 2021 summer election campaign and June 2024. Since September 2021 about 300 doctors have been added to the provincial health system, the Health Department said.
“We’ll know if Tim Houston is keeping his 2021 election promise to fix health care when Nova Scotians are attached to primary care,” Chender said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – Newfoundland and Labrador‘s chief medical officer is monitoring the rise of whooping cough infections across the province as cases of the highly contagious disease continue to grow across Canada.
Dr. Janice Fitzgerald says that so far this year, the province has recorded 230 confirmed cases of the vaccine-preventable respiratory tract infection, also known as pertussis.
Late last month, Quebec reported more than 11,000 cases during the same time period, while Ontario counted 470 cases, well above the five-year average of 98. In Quebec, the majority of patients are between the ages of 10 and 14.
Meanwhile, New Brunswick has declared a whooping cough outbreak across the province. A total of 141 cases were reported by last month, exceeding the five-year average of 34.
The disease can lead to severe complications among vulnerable populations including infants, who are at the highest risk of suffering from complications like pneumonia and seizures. Symptoms may start with a runny nose, mild fever and cough, then progress to severe coughing accompanied by a distinctive “whooping” sound during inhalation.
“The public, especially pregnant people and those in close contact with infants, are encouraged to be aware of symptoms related to pertussis and to ensure vaccinations are up to date,” Newfoundland and Labrador’s Health Department said in a statement.
Whooping cough can be treated with antibiotics, but vaccination is the most effective way to control the spread of the disease. As a result, the province has expanded immunization efforts this school year. While booster doses are already offered in Grade 9, the vaccine is now being offered to Grade 8 students as well.
Public health officials say whooping cough is a cyclical disease that increases every two to five or six years.
Meanwhile, New Brunswick’s acting chief medical officer of health expects the current case count to get worse before tapering off.
A rise in whooping cough cases has also been reported in the United States and elsewhere. The Pan American Health Organization issued an alert in July encouraging countries to ramp up their surveillance and vaccination coverage.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 10, 2024.
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