Did the federal government deliver its promise to make Canada a vaccine hub?

Empty COVID-19 vaccine vials are shown at a pharmacy in Toronto on Wednesday, April 6, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette

At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government promised that Canada would become a vaccine hub. But did that ever happen?

The answer, according to an epidemiologist, is “sort of.”

The University of Ottawa’s Raywat Deonandan said Canada is in a better position now than it was six years ago, but some elements are still lacking.

“We’ve got about a dozen vaccine manufacturing centres across the country, but only three can be scaled up to industrial-level manufacturing,” he said in an interview with CTV Your Morning Wednesday.

“They have extraordinary capacity, but we don’t have the ingredients yet for full vaccine sovereignty, if that’s the word.”

Also needed for a scale-up are data-sharing agreements and human resources, among other things, he said.

‘A bad assumption’

At a time when trade policies from U.S. President Donald Trump have put sovereignty again at the forefront, and taking into account lessons learned from the pandemic, sovereignty in the vaccine space is something to consider.

As Canada looks to diversify its trade partners, and following supply chain issues with access to COVID shots, Deonandan said Canada is trying to get back to the momentum it once had in the manufacturing of vaccines.

“We lost it mostly because public manufacturing of these sorts of things is expensive, and we assumed that globalization of these relationships would be our salvation, but as COVID taught us, when the crisis hits, people tend to take care of their own populations first,” he said.

Canada was able to negotiate deals in the case of the pandemic, “but it was tight,” he said.

“That assumption that the global supply chain will satisfy us was a bad assumption. We really have to stress vaccine sovereignty more.”

CTVNews.ca reached out to the federal government for comment. In an emailed response, Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) said the country “is better prepared now than it was at the start of COVID‑19, with over $2.5B invested since 2020 in biomanufacturing, vaccines, and therapeutics—building a stronger national ecosystem across more than 40 projects.”

The federal department also told CTVNews.ca the now fully operational Biologics Manufacturing Centre (BMC) in Montreal can generate biopharmaceuticals, including virus-like particle vaccines.

The statement added that the federal government formed Heath Emergency Readiness Canada (HERC) through ISED, which works with researchers, private sector companies and other partners to co-ordinate Canada’s response to a health crisis.

According to ISED, HERC collaborates with several global allies, including Mexico, the United Kingdom and the European Union.

Is Canada ready for another pandemic?

When asked how prepared Canada would be to ramp up in the event of another major illness outbreak or pandemic, Deonandan called it a “tough question.”

He said the country is more prepared than it was six years ago, in part because of increased manufacturing capacity and stronger international agreements.

Still, he said, there would be supply-chain issues with ingredients. But if there is a need for another messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) vaccine like those used to reduce transmission of COVID-19, “I think we’re in a better position now, substantially.”

Does Canada need a hantavirus vaccine?

When asked about the latest outbreak making headlines – the spread of hantavirus among passengers on a cruise ship, some of whom have since returned to Canada – Deonandan said he doesn’t anticipate a need for vaccinations.

“Hantavirus is highly unlikely to be an epidemic-quality disease,” he said.

“Even if it were, the possibility of making a vaccine quickly is quite low, so this is not a disease we should be focused on for pandemic preparedness.”