Canada’s hopes of speeding up COVID-19 vaccinations brightened slightly over the weekend as regulators began work to approve a new inoculation, even as the federal government sought to head off any restrictions on vaccine shipments from Europe.
Pharmaceutical company Novavax quietly submitted its COVID-19 vaccine to Health Canada for regulatory approval on Friday, less than two weeks after Ottawa finalized a deal with the Maryland-based company for 52 million doses of the shot.
Because of the emergency nature of the pandemic, Health Canada is accepting applications for vaccines before the final trial data is ready, allowing the review team to start poring over the documents on an ongoing basis rather than waiting until everything is finished.
The rolling review allows for much faster approval once the final results from clinical trials are complete.
Novavax is the fifth vaccine maker to submit an application for rolling review. AstraZeneca, Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna all submitted in early October; Johnson and Johnson followed suit at the end of November.
Health Canada approved the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine on Dec. 9 and gave Moderna the green light on Dec. 23, both about three weeks after the companies completed their Phase 3 trials. A decision on AstraZeneca is expected in the next couple of weeks.
Johnson and Johnson reported results from its Phase 3 trial just last week.
Novavax also reported results Thursday from a trial in the United Kingdom, but a large trial in the U.S. is still at least a month or two away from yielding final results.
Novavax has said its vaccine was 89 per cent effective in the U.K. trial. It also touts its product as very effective against the two coronavirus variants first detected in the U.K. and South Africa.
Johnson and Johnson’s long-awaited COVID-19 vaccine appears to protect against symptomatic illness with just one shot, although it’s not as strong as some two-shot rivals. (AP)
Application comes as Ottawa faces criticism over vaccine rollout
Novavax’s application comes as the federal Liberal government faces withering criticism for the pace of vaccinations across the country, with opposition parties and some provincial governments complaining about a lack of shots.
Those critiques have come as Pfizer slows delivery of its vaccines to Canada so it can expand a production plant in Belgium. The European pharmaceutical giant is also pressing Canada to allow six shots per vial of vaccine instead of the current five.
Moderna has also said that it will deliver fewer doses than originally promised, though the Liberal government insists the slowdowns are temporary and that both companies will make good on their promised deliveries over the coming months.
There are also concerns that Canada’s troubled vaccine supplies will be further affected by new controls on vaccine exports that have been imposed by the European Union, which is also struggling with delivery shortfalls from manufacturers.
The measures allow the European Union to deny vaccine exports if the manufacturer has not fulfilled its promised deliveries to the 27-country bloc, which is where most of Canada’s shots are being made.
Ottawa receives assurances Canada won’t be affected
Ottawa has been working to head off any impact on Canada’s supply, with International Trade Minister Mary Ng speaking by phone to her EU counterpart on Saturday for the second time in three days.
That followed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s own phone call with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen late last week, after which Trudeau asserted that the new export controls would not affect vaccines destined for Canada.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the export transparency rule is temporary but has to be done as the continent is in an ongoing battle with vaccine-makers about slow deliveries. (Francisco Seco/Associated Press)
Ng was told the same thing during her phone call with Valdis Dombrovskis, the European Commission’s commissioner for trade, according to a summary of their conversation provided by Global Affairs Canada.
“I was really clear that Canada’s expectation is that our purchase contracts with the vaccine makers are not disrupted,” Ng said in a Sunday interview on Rosemary Barton Live. “I would note that in their regulation, there is absolutely consideration for advance purchase agreements that have been made, like that of Canada, with the vaccine makers, and our expectation is that there is no disruption or delay.
Ng also told CBC Chief Political Correspondent Rosemary Barton that Ottawa is taking a “whole of government approach” to tackle the issue.
“Minister Garneau has already spoken to some of his counterparts and continues that work, as will Minister Hajdu,” she said. “Minister Anand, of course, is in constant contact with the suppliers, and I have been speaking to my international counterparts.”
Von der Leyen said Friday the commission is following through on a threat to force COVID-19 vaccine makers to show them what vaccines they are producing in Europe and where those are going.
She said the export transparency rule is temporary but has to be done as the continent is in an ongoing battle with vaccine-makers about slow deliveries.
Both Pfizer-BioNTech and AstraZeneca are behind on their scheduled deliveries to European nations, but it is the latter with which Europe is having the loudest fight.
The EU is demanding the company ship doses made in the U.K. to make up for shortfalls due to production issues in its European plants.
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.
