Canada signs deals with Moderna, Pfizer to secure coronavirus vaccine supply

In a new development, Canada has signed separate deals with two leading American companies to secure the supply of their experimental coronavirus vaccines. As per a top official, the first deal is signed Moderna, which is in the last phase of the trial for its potential vaccine mRNA-1273. The other is signed with Pfizer, which is currently working with BioNTech SE, to deliver doses of BNT162mRNA bases vaccine in 2021.

'Negotiating other deals' 

In addition to these two, Ottawa was also ‘negotiating’ with other pharmaceutical companies. Speaking at a press briefing, the country’s procurement minister Anita Anand said that they were “very, very intensely negotiating” multiple deals with a number of other potential and international vaccine suppliers.

“We all want a silver bullet but unfortunately that’s not the case. Other measures would be needed, such as buying more protective equipment and investing in medicines to alleviate the symptoms of sufferers”, Anand told a press conference.

Though she did give details on the monetary worth of the deals, the Canadian lawmaker emphasized that all the vaccine candidates would require approval by ‘Health Canada’ before they could be manufactured and packaged. She further added that her department was procuring ‘equipment supplies’ needed for the same. “Any potential vaccine candidate will take time to develop, properly test, mass manufacture and properly distribute,” she concluded.

Read: US Announces $1 Billion COVID-19 Vaccine Deal With Johnson & Johnson

This comes just as the US announced a new $1 billion deal with Johnson & Johnson aimed at securing 100 million doses of the new COVID-19 vaccine which the company is developing. The Trump administration, which has invested over $9.4 billion on COVID-19 vaccines until now, is hoping for vaccine distribution by the end of this year.

Read: Anthony Fauci Says Billion Coronavirus Vaccine Doses Could Be Available By End Of 2021

J&J had already received $456 million in March, via its subsidiary Jansen. However, this new money was reportedly granted to the pharmaceutical company to accelerate the production of the vaccine allowing the doses to be shipped as soon as the drug receives regulatory approval. According to reports, the American government also has an option to acquire doses sufficient to vaccinate 300 million people.

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Read: Novavax Claims Its Experimental COVID-19 Vaccine Produced High Levels Of Antibodies