Millions of doses of two new COVID-19 vaccines will be made in Montreal

In a press conference this morning, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau confirmed the news that leaked early this morning about the production of COVID-19 vaccines in Montreal. He confirmed that, pending regulatory approval by Health Canada, vaccines from Novavax (which is reportedly 89.3% effective against the virus) and Precision NanoSystems will be produced at a new facility at the Royalmount National Research Council site in Montreal (which will only be ready in the fall), and spoke about additional vaccine production sites in Saskatoon and Vancouver.

“We’ve signed a memorandum of understanding with Novavax to produce tens of millions of their COVID-19 vaccine doses at the new NRC Royalmount facilities in Montreal. In September, I visited the site of the new facilities of the therapeutics research centre on Royalmount Avenue in Montreal, where construction and all work should be finished by the end of the summer. Once the facilities have been certified, they will be able to produce some two million doses of vaccines of all types every month.

“We’ve also invested $46-million in a vaccine development facility at the University of Saskatchewan’s Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization, which will be able to produce up to 40 million doses annually. And in addition to the work underway in Montreal and Saskatoon, thanks to a federal investment of $25-million, Precision NanoSystems in Vancouver will also build a production facility capable of producing up to 240 million vaccine doses yearly.”

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