\n
An approval of some sort could be coming soon, Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos told reporters on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
“The Health Canada approval process is proceeding swiftly in an accelerated manner, as has been the case for many other approval processes in the last 22 months,” Duclos said.<\/p>\n
The country’s premiers, notably Ontario’s Doug Ford, seem to be losing patience\u00a0with Ottawa’s pace. In a Monday call, the premiers urged Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to make antiviral procurement a top priority.<\/p>\n
Duclos said that message has been received.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nHealth Minister Jean-Yves Duclos said the Health Canada review process “is proceeding swiftly.” (Adrian Wyld\/The Canadian Press)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n“I’ve had several discussions with provincial and territorial health colleagues within the last two weeks, making sure that when and if this treatment from Pfizer is approved, we are able to move swiftly to clinical use of that treatment across Canada,” he said.<\/span><\/p>\n\n
\n
In early December, Canada placed an order for an initial quantity of one million treatment courses. Some of that supply will start to arrive after Health Canada’s expected approval \u2014 how much remains to be seen.<\/p>\n
Christina Antoniou, a spokesperson for Pfizer Canada, told CBC News the company is “moving as quickly as possible\u202fin our efforts\u202fto get this treatment into the hands of patients.”<\/p>\n
“Details about delivery timelines and amount of product to be received will be shared upon approval,” she said.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for Procurement Minister Filomena Tassi\u00a0said the federal government expects deliveries “to commence shortly after approval.”<\/p>\n
Paxlovid\u00a0supply could be a problem<\/h2>\n One major sticking point for Canada and the world\u00a0is manufacturing capacity. Nearly three weeks after FDA approval, Paxlovid and Merck’s product are anything but plentiful south of the border.<\/p>\n
Some small states have received very small shipments.\u00a0Wyoming has\u00a0enough supply for fewer than 100 people.<\/p>\n
After\u00a0the Biden administration declined to make\u00a0advance purchase agreements for antivirals\u00a0last summer \u2014 when COVID-19 appeared to be under control \u2014 Pfizer produced just 120,000 courses of treatment last year.<\/p>\n
In an interview with CNBC Thursday, Rick Bright, Biden’s former therapeutics adviser, conceded the administration should have been much more “aggressive” about procuring the product and helping to expand Pfizer’s production capacity.<\/p>\n
He said Biden may now want to invoke the Defense Production Act, which gives the president the power to order the production and supply of goods and services.<\/p>\n
“This is one area where I wish we would have done more sooner,” Bright said. “I wish we would have ramped up manufacturing of these antiviral drugs as they were in development.”<\/p>\n
Now, with global interest in antivirals running high as the Omicron variant wreaks havoc, Pfizer is promising to churn out 120 million courses of the treatment by year’s end.<\/p>\n
The company told investors late last month it’s in the process of a “massive network expansion” at 14 different sites to meet the insatiable demand for these pills.<\/p>\n
“We are leveraging our vast manufacturing and supply network for production of Paxlovid.\u00a0We are currently bringing on additional capacity and ramping up further;\u00a0as with our vaccine, we expect to use our strong manufacturing capabilities and our extensive supplier network to improve output rapidly,” said Antoniou, the Pfizer spokesperson.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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