Thought of the Day - February 18 2022 - Novavax Shipment on the Way

As a formality, it looks like Canada has finally gone ahead with a commitment from over a year ago. Canada has joined 35 other countries, and the WHO, in authorizing the use of the Novavax COVID-19, Nuvaxovid, vaccine.

According to Dr. Theresa Tam, the Novavax vaccine is the first protein-based COVID-19 vaccine authorized in Canada and will be offered to adults who have so far been "unable or unwilling" to receive an mRNA vaccine. Novavax uses similar protein-based technology as hepatitis, shingles and some flu shots as so should be less likely to cause some of the side effects seen with the mRNA platform such as heart inflammation (myocarditis). This type of COVID vaccine has also been developed and successfully deployed by Cuba and Taiwan.

Canada has contracted a “significant supply” of Nuvaxovid and a "considerable shipment" will arrive in Canada in March from a Novavax licensed production facility in India. Remember, one of the drivers for the deal Canada signed with the Maryland-based Novavax Inc. in February 2021 was that we would produce the vaccine at a Montreal facility ( Thought of the Day - February 15 2021 - Vaccine Wars - It's a Madhouse ). This was driven by pressure on the federal government over Canada’s lack of domestic vaccine manufacturing capacity. However, a year later after the announcement, the facility in Montreal is still nowhere near production-ready.

So, soon we will have another stockpile of vaccine, this could be good news for some of those advised not to take the mRNA vaccines currently on offer in Canada. However, to this point, we have still not achieved the objective of improving domestic vaccine manufacturing capability.

Cheers

Cliff