As China races to develop a COVID-19 vaccine, a multimillion-dollar collaboration between Canada and China has failed, likely because of Beijing’s geopolitical concerns, say scientists with direct knowledge of the project.
This week Canada’s National Research Council (NRC) announced it has abandoned its partnership with Chinese company CanSino Biologics, because China’s government continues to block shipments of vaccine materials to Canada.
The NRC — which is part of the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry — has received about $44-million since late March to upgrade its production capacity in Montreal in preparation for materials expected from CanSino.
“With the funding received from the Government of Canada on March 23 and April 23, much work is underway at NRC … to certify our facility … and expand production,” NRC stated. “These enhancements to the facility will support a broad range of partners and clients with research, scale-up support, and the manufacturing of vaccines and therapeutics.”
In May, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau endorsed the deal with CanSino — a company funded by Beijing and producing its vaccine with the People’s Liberation Army.
CanSino’s COVID-19 vaccine is being tested on Chinese soldiers and has been approved for testing at the Canadian Center for Vaccinology (CCfV) at Dalhousie University in Halifax. CanSino’s vaccine was supposed to arrive at the CCfV in June.
But after Canada signed the CanSino deal “the Government of China changed rules on shipping vaccines,” the NRC said this week in a statement.
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CanSino was founded in 2009 by Chinese scientist Dr. Xuefeng Yu, who was educated at McGill University in Quebec and worked for Sanofi Pasteur, before returning to China.
Yu did not respond to interview requests from Global News, but this week reportedly told the Globe and Mail that “bureaucratic indecision” from Chinese officials has delayed shipments of CanSino’s vaccine to Canada.
After this story was published CanSino issued this statement: “Up to the date of this announcement, the collaboration between the National Research Council of Canada and the Company has not been terminated. None of the management of the Company has accepted any interview in relation to the clinical trails (sic) for Ad5-nCoV in Canada in the recent period; and the Company is currently driving the international multi-center phase III clinical trial for Ad5-nCoV with several countries.”
https://globalnews.ca/news/7302194/canada-coronavirus-vaccine-deal-china/
