An Alberta senator is urging Ottawa to fund a Canadian company so it can develop a domestic COVID-19 vaccine to lessen the risk Canadians will have wait in a line on a foreign-made pandemic cure.
"I really do believe that we need to keep the pressure now on the government of Canada, whom I'm not criticizing. I get that this is an unusual time. And this may be in hand, or it may have fallen through the cracks. But we can't allow that to happen," Sen. Doug Black said in an interview Monday.
Providence's chief executive Brad Sorenson told The Canadian Press he has not heard back from the government since late May after his company submitted its proposal in April, and after the government reached out to it as a possible vaccine-maker.They point to the billions of dollars that two other companies have received from the U.S.
"I see the commitment that's being made by the European and American governments to this identical technology and I'm saying, 'Hmm, why in the name of goodness aren't we pursuing this aggressively in Canada?"' said Black.Health-care professionals have also written to Innovation Minister Navdeep Bains to urge him to make up his mind.
The federal government has created a $600-million fund to support vaccine clinical trials and manufacturing inside Canada. Canada-China relations are severely strained after the People's Republic imprisoned two Canadian men, Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, in apparent retaliation for the RCMP's arresting Chinese high-tech executive Meng Wanzhou on an American extradition warrant in December 2018.
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