Domestic COVID-19 vaccine production to begin by end of year

Canada will begin home-growing COVID-19 vaccines from two different manufacturers by the end of this year.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his government has set up deals with Vancouver-based Precision NanoSystems and U.S-based Novavax to begin domestic vaccine production.

Trudeau said Novavax will be producing doses at a new National Research Council facility in Montreal as soon as the facility is online in late summer. Novavax had just submitted their vaccine for Health Canada’s approval late last week. The federal government agreed to purchase over 70-million doses from the pharmaceutical company located in Maryland. 

The news comes in light of a COVID-19 vaccine export control rule announced by the European Union endangering Canada’s vaccine supply moving forward.