Wed, April 24, 2024 at 9:35 AM EDT
Business
Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine won’t be the ‘workhorse’ in Canada’s rollout – Global News
A policy expert says the Canada’s Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine shipment timeline is the result of naivety and a lack of ambition, while an infectious disease physician says it won’t be the country’s ‘workhorse’ vaccine.
On Monday, Procurement Minister Anita Anand announced that the first shipments of the single-dose COVID-19 vaccine from Johnson & Johnson would arrive at the end of April. Health Canada announced approval of the vaccine March 5.
Dan Breznitz, Munk chair of innovation studies and co-director of the innovation policy lab at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy at the University of Toronto, told Global News this is the latest of various stumbles due to a late start to planning, with NACI first meeting to discuss COVID-19 in June 2020, and a lack of understanding of current world economic systems.
“In the past, you know, you had a production facility and the R&D and the design and everything in one place,” he explained.
“What we have is a world now set into slices of activities. So that product is made in various stages, if you will, around the world… it also means you have vast supply chains. Depending on where you have and those points of a supply chain, you have less or more power.”
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Amid AstraZeneca concerns, Trudeau tells Canadians to take the ‘first vaccine’ they’re offered
While he has not seen the contract that Canada has with Johnson & Johnson, he questions what incentives were provided, adding it will take months to have enough vaccine for the world and there’s “always hiccups.”
“So countries that have don’t have more than just the ‘hey, I signed that contract and I gave you some money’ — which is basically every country on earth — would be the last in the priority unless they have some other cards up their sleeves,” he said.
“We decided, A: not to have cards under our sleeves; and B: from what I understand, again, I haven’t read the contract, we really cared more about the price of the vaccine than about anything else. And that’s to me seems a bit strange.”
Canada has pre-ordered 10 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, with options to order up to 28 million more.
On Friday, before it was announced that first shipments would arrive at the end of April, Minister Anand said that she had repeatedly stressed the importance and necessity of Canada receiving a delivery schedule from Johnson & Johnson as soon as possible.
She added at that time that “the precise delivery schedule is one that we still need to receive and, if necessary, negotiate.”
A spokesperson for Janssen Canada, Janssen being a pharmaceutical company of Johnson & Johnson, told Global News only that it anticipates fulfilling the 10 million doses by the end of the third quarter “with first delivery targeted in the next several weeks.”
Even without the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, however, Canada is still on track to receive at least 44 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines from AstraZeneca, Moderna, and Pfizer by the end of June, though NACI is now recommending AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine not be administered to people under the age of 55.
Infectious disease physician and associate professor at McMaster University, Zain Chagla, says that when Johnson & Johnson shipments finally arrive, they will help speed up the country’s vaccination timeline, but “it’s not necessarily going to change the trajectory that much.”
“Even what we get in April is probably going to be a small amount relative, given that Johnson & Johnson is currently going to the United States, a small amount is going to Europe, South Africa has now signed a big contract for it too. We are part of the global demand for this vaccine in that sense and so we’ll get small amounts,” he told Global News.
“It’s not going to be the one that necessarily gets us to mass vaccination. It will certainly help, but this isn’t going to be the workhorse one.”
Chagla says with a month to go until the Johnson & Johnson shipments arrive, Canada should be focusing on how to make sure it gets into the right arms.
The Johnson & Johnson vaccine is the only single-dose COVID-19 vaccine approved by Health Canada and is also significantly easier to ship and store in comparison to other vaccines, as it can be kept in a refrigerator for three months.
“To me, homeless shelters, jails, high-risk workplaces — those are the places we probably should be putting this vaccine into,” Chagla explained.
“In populations where a single dose is appropriate, where they’re so transient, bringing them into a clinic is very difficult and that you could get it all done within a day or two, or at least have some doses residual for someone that shows up a week or two later into the system.”
Meanwhile, a company based out of St. Catharines, Ont., is hoping that it can add to the world’s vaccine supply through the use of a little-used mechanism that would allow it to override Johnson & Johnson’s patent and produce a generic version of the vaccine.
Biolyse Pharma, which currently produces cancer medicines, is hoping to obtain a compulsory licence through Canada’s Access to Medicines Regime, which is Canada’s legislation that reflects the World Trade Organization’s agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS).
Biolyse spokesperson John Fulton says the company could potentially produce up to 20-million doses per year.
“About four years ago we started purchasing equipment and building out a facility to produce biologic drugs. And, of course, we’re dealing with a pandemic so they decided, ‘Well, let’s get involved with this war effort and pivot to producing vaccines,’ because it’s all the same equipment.”
He says over the last several months, Biolyse reached out to companies to see if they could work together to help produce vaccines, but didn’t get any takers. That’s when he reached out to Knowledge Ecology International (KEI) for assistance pursuing a compulsory licence.
Biolyse managed to use Canada’s Access to Medicines Regime in 2006 amid a global peak of H5N1 to get a generic of Tamiflu added to a list of drugs covered under Canada’s patent act, which is among Canada’s requirements to obtain a compulsory licence.
In that case, it took roughly eight months before the patent act was amended to include oseltamivir phosphate.
Biolyse has a meeting scheduled with Health Canada in early April to discuss the application, but a researcher with KEI told Global News it’s unlikely any decision will be made at that time and it’s unclear how long the entire process will take.
It’s worth the effort, Chagla suggested, because the threat of variants and the potential need for repeat vaccinations makes for a long-term need for COVID-19 vaccine on a global scale.
“Obviously, more production, more vaccines is better. And again, Johnson & Johnson has the potential to be the global vaccine in that sense because of the one dose nature and because of the the issues of refrigeration stability. Adding to that benefit to the world is only helpful.”
Outside of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, Breznitz is hoping that Canada will start preparing for the future now.
“We are, as always, too naive and not ambitious enough,” he said.
“Are we going to up our ante and ensure that we are — and we can be — global leaders in the production of those kinds of vaccines in this country?”
— with files from Global News’ Rachael D’Amore.
© 2021 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
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Business
Oil Firms Doubtful Trans Mountain Pipeline Will Start Full Service by May 1st
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Oil companies planning to ship crude on the expanded Trans Mountain pipeline in Canada are concerned that the project may not begin full service on May 1 but they would be nevertheless obligated to pay tolls from that date.
In a letter to the Canada Energy Regulator (CER), Suncor Energy and other shippers including BP and Marathon Petroleum have expressed doubts that Trans Mountain will start full service on May 1, as previously communicated, Reuters reports.
Trans Mountain Corporation, the government-owned entity that completed the pipeline construction, told Reuters in an email that line fill on the expanded pipeline would be completed in early May.
After a series of delays, cost overruns, and legal challenges, the expanded Trans Mountain oil pipeline will open for business on May 1, the company said early this month.
“The Commencement Date for commercial operation of the expanded system will be May 1, 2024. Trans Mountain anticipates providing service for all contracted volumes in the month of May,” Trans Mountain Corporation said in early April.
The expanded pipeline will triple the capacity of the original pipeline to 890,000 barrels per day (bpd) from 300,000 bpd to carry crude from Alberta’s oil sands to British Columbia on the Pacific Coast.
The Federal Government of Canada bought the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion (TMX) from Kinder Morgan back in 2018, together with related pipeline and terminal assets. That cost the federal government $3.3 billion (C$4.5 billion) at the time. Since then, the costs for the expansion of the pipeline have quadrupled to nearly $23 billion (C$30.9 billion).
The expansion project has faced continuous delays over the years. In one of the latest roadblocks in December, the Canadian regulator denied a variance request from the project developer to move a small section of the pipeline due to challenging drilling conditions.
The company asked the regulator to reconsider its decision, and received on January 12 a conditional approval, avoiding what could have been another two-year delay to start-up.
Business
Tesla profits cut in half as demand falls
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Tesla profits slump by more than a half
Tesla has announced its profits fell sharply in the first three months of the year to $1.13bn (£910m), compared with $2.51bn in 2023.
It caps a difficult period for the electric vehicle (EV) maker, which – faced with falling sales – has announced thousands of job cuts.
Boss Elon Musk remains bullish about its prospects, telling investors the launch of new models would be brought forward.
Its share price has risen but analysts say it continues to face significant challenges, including from lower-cost rivals.
The company has suffered from falling demand and competition from cheaper Chinese imports which has led its stock price to collapse by 43% over 2024.
Figures for the first quarter of 2024 revealed revenues of $21.3bn, down on analysts’ predictions of just over $22bn.
But the decision by Tesla to bring forward the launch of new models from the second half of 2025 boosted its shares by nearly 12.5% in after-hours trading.
It did not reveal pricing details for the new vehicles.
However Mr Musk made clear he also grander ambitions, touting Tesla’s AI credentials and plans for self-driving vehicles – even going as far as to say considering it to be just a car company was the “wrong framework.”
“If somebody doesn’t believe Tesla is going to solve autonomy I think they should not be an investor,” he said.
Such sentiments have been questioned by analysts though, with Deutsche Bank saying driverless cars face “technological, regulatory and operational challenges.”
Some investors have called for the company to instead focus on releasing a lower price, mass-market EV.
However, Tesla has already been on a charm offensive, trying to win over new customers by dropping its prices in a series of markets in the face of falling sales.
It also said its situation was not unique.
“Global EV sales continue to be under pressure as many carmakers prioritize hybrids over EVs,” it said.
Despite plans to bring forward new models originally planned for next year the firm is cutting its workforce.
Tesla said it would lose 3,332 jobs in California and 2,688 positions in Texas, starting mid-June.
The cuts in Texas represent 12% of Tesla’s total workforce of almost 23,000 in the area where its gigafactory and headquarters are located.
However, Mr Musk sought to downplay the move.
“Tesla has now created over 30,000 manufacturing jobs in California!” he said in a post on his social media platform X, formerly Twitter, on Tuesday.
Another 285 jobs will be lost in New York.
Tesla’s total workforce stood at more than 140,000 late last year, up from around 100,000 at the end of 2021, according to the company’s filings with US regulators.
Musk’s salary
The car firm is also facing other issues, with a struggle over Mr Musk’s compensation still raging on.
On Wednesday, Tesla asked shareholders to vote for a proposal to accept Mr Musk’s compensation package – once valued at $56bn – which had been rejected by a Delaware judge.
The judge found Tesla’s directors had breached their fiduciary duty to the firm by awarding Mr Musk the pay-out.
Due to the fall in Tesla’s stock value, the compensation package is now estimated to be around $10bn less – but still greater than the GDP of many countries.
In addition, Tesla wants its shareholders to agree to the firm being moved from Delaware to Texas – which Mr Musk called for after the judge rejected his payday.
Business
Stock market today: Nasdaq futures pop, Tesla surges after earnings with more heavyweights on deck
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Tech stocks rose on Wednesday, outstripping the broader market as investors welcomed Tesla’s (TSLA) cheaper car pledge and waited for the next rush of corporate earnings.
The Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) rose roughly 0.6%, coming off a sharp closing gain. The S&P 500 (^GSPC) was up 0.2%, continuing a rebound from its longest losing streak of 2024, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) fell 0.1%.
Tesla shares jumped nearly 12% after the EV maker’s vow to speed up the launch of more affordable models eclipsed its quarterly earnings and revenue miss. That cheered up investors worried about growth amid a strategy shift to robotaxis and the planned cancellation of a cheaper model.
The results from the first “Magnificent Seven” to report have intensified the already high hopes for Big Tech earnings, that the megacaps can revive the rally in stocks they powered. The spotlight is now on Meta’s (META) report due after the market close, as the Facebook owner’s shares rose after the Senate voted for a potential ban on rival TikTok. Microsoft (MSFT) and Alphabet (GOOG) next up on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Boeing (BA) reported better than expected first quarter results before the opening bell with a loss per share of $1.13, narrower than the $1.72 estimated by Wall Street. Shares rose about 2% in morning trade.
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