Pharma giant Sanofi unveiled Canada’s largest vaccine production facility yesterday. The Toronto plant will produce shots for whooping cough, diphtheria, and tetanus, giving an immediate boost to the country’s pretty lacklustre vaccine supply chain.
- The plant will share a campus with Sanofi’s future flu vaccine and pandemic preparedness facility, a project the federal and Ontario governments have poured $470 million into.
Why it matters: Canada’s lack of domestic vaccine facilities has put it at the mercy of other countries to import shots. That dependency caused delays in its COVID-19 vaccine rollout and cautious over-ordering that led to ~18 million doses being thrown out just last year.
- Sanofi’s forthcoming plant will reportedly be able to produce enough vaccines for every Canadian within six months of a new influenza-strain pandemic being declared.
Bottom line: Canada imports ~85% of its vaccines, a steep departure from the 1970s when it made the majority of its shots. The Sanofi plants are a start, but for the time being, Canada is still going to rely heavily on vaccine leaders like the U.S. and Europe.—LA