Moderna is producing its first made-in-Canada COVID-19 shots at facilities in Laval, Que. and Cambridge, Ont. The Laval facility, Moderna’s first outside the U.S., has the capacity to produce up to 100 million mRNA vaccine doses annually.ROGER LEMOYNE/The Globe and Mail
Five years after Canada first raced to secure COVID-19 vaccines, the country is preparing to pass a milestone this fall: the first made-in-Canada COVID-19 shots.
U.S. drugmaker Moderna Inc. is producing the mRNA vaccines at plants in Laval, Que., and Cambridge, Ont., that will be available for patients in the coming days.
This comes just a few months after Ottawa terminated a contract with U.S. drugmaker Novavax Inc. that was part of a government-backed initiative to make vaccines domestically. U.S. securities filings show the federal government paid out US$556-million to Novavax as part of cancelling the contract, a bill that is on top of the C$130-million Ottawa spent on a facility in Montreal that never produced COVID-19 shots.
Moderna paid for nearly all the costs of its Quebec facility, reported by La Presse to be $180-million, with the Quebec government contributing $25-million.
But the company said Ottawa was a valuable partner in clearing away red tape.
“The extent to which the government supported us was really in terms of collaborating on getting us set up, removing barriers where we have barriers, and in terms of ensuring we can have a speedy implementation,” said Stefan Raos, general manager for Moderna Canada.
A quality control analyst at Moderna's Laval facility uses a pipette to test lipid nanoparticles (LNPs), which encapsulate and deliver the mRNA used in the COVID-19 vaccine.ROGER LEMOYNE/The Globe and Mail
The Laval facility is Moderna’s first outside the U.S. It is also working on plants in Britain and Australia.
The Cambridge location is owned by Novocol Pharma and is contracted by Moderna for the final steps in the process of making pre-filled syringes.
Mr. Raos said Moderna liked Canada because it is a country where “science is at the forefront.”
“We’re also committed heavily on investing outside the walls of the facility in research and development at the fundamental level, but also with clinical trials, developing our portfolio and bringing those new products to fruition,” he said.
He said it also sets Canada apart from many other countries in securing a domestic supply of the vaccine. “It does give Canada really a position of strength in terms of its health sovereignty.”
Mina Tadrous, a Canada Research Chair in Real World Evidence and Pharmaceutical Policy at the University of Toronto, said the Canadian production of COVID-19 shots is an important milestone for securing domestic supply chains, and also creates infrastructure that can be used for producing other medication in the future if needed.
He said it’s also a way to bring highly trained people into the country and build up local expertise, which will hopefully lead to more investment.
“It’s an exciting moment to see a company of that size and that reputation, being able to bring something to this country, and I think it should be a signal that we probably want to bring in a little bit more,” he said.
An employee monitors the temperature of a freezer where the vaccines are stored.ROGER LEMOYNE/The Globe and Mail
Canada’s other major seasonal vaccinations are produced in a mix of domestic and international facilities. Canada’s largest supplier of influenza (flu) vaccines, GlaxoSmithKline Inc., has produced shots at its Sainte-Foy, Que., facility since 1997. Sanofi SA, another major supplier of flu vaccines, is building a facility in Toronto that it says is on track to open next year. Sanofi’s vaccines are not currently produced in Canada. Neither are those of the third major flu-shot provider, CSL Seqirus Ltd.
The demand for COVID-19 shots has waned since the height of the pandemic. For example, millions of doses a month were being administered in Ontario during the lockdowns in 2021, according to a report from Public Health Ontario, a number that had dwindled to the thousands by the spring of 2024 when most Canadians had already received at least two doses each.
At the same time, there have been major changes this year to public coverage. The federal government announced earlier this year that it would no longer procure COVID-19 vaccines – as it does with others, such as flu shots – and would leave that policy up to provinces. Alberta and Quebec have said they will only pay for shots for members of vulnerable populations, such as seniors. Others will have to pay out of pocket, between $100 and $180.
Mr. Raos said Moderna always anticipated that pandemic demand would recede. “It hasn’t come as a surprise,” he said. But he noted most provinces are still covering the vaccines broadly.
Employees at the Laval facility monitor the status of the equipment inside the sterile environment shielded by multiple layers of glass. The facility will also be used to produce vaccines for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) next year, Moderna says.ROGER LEMOYNE/The Globe and Mail
He said Moderna will also begin making its vaccine for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in Laval next year and hopes to use the facility to produce other mRNA treatments in the future, such as oncology therapies.
Meanwhile, a Montreal facility that was built with nearly $130-million in federal funds in 2021 with the intention that Novavax would make COVID-19 vaccines there has never produced any doses.
Novavax’s product, which was made with more traditional vaccine technology, had low uptake among Canadians. In the 2023-24 season, only 5,529 of the 125,000 doses Ottawa ordered were administered. The vaccine has not been available for Canadians since.
In a March 11 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Novavax said the Canadian government had cancelled its agreement with the company because the drugmaker had not gotten regulatory approval to produce the vaccine at the Montreal facility.
Novavax confirmed to The Globe and Mail that it received US$556-million from the federal government with the cancellation of the contract. Under the terms of the deal, it separately refunded US$28-million in advance payments.
Neither Public Services and Procurement Canada nor Biologics Manufacturing Centre (a non-profit that runs the Montreal facility) responded to questions this week.
Health Canada approved updated COVID-19 shots for Moderna and Pfizer in August. Moderna said it began delivering doses across the country on Monday.
Canada’s National Advisory Committee on Immunization currently recommends the vaccine for all Canadians who are aged 65 or older, as well as certain other populations at higher risk from the virus. It says all Canadians over the age of six months may receive it.