Procuring vaccines for COVID-19
Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) works with the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), Health Canada and Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada to identify and procure vaccines and supplies.
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COVID-19 vaccine agreements
On behalf of PHAC, and based on advice from the COVID-19 Vaccine Task Force, PSPC leads negotiations and finalizes agreements with suppliers of COVID-19 vaccines.
The Government of Canada has committed over $9 billion to procure vaccines and therapeutics and to provide international support. PHAC is responsible for managing this funding as the client department. A majority of that amount has been allocated for the doses of vaccines secured for everyone in Canada.
All vaccines require Health Canada authorization prior to being used to vaccinate anyone in Canada.
Future vaccine supply
The Government of Canada continues to secure access to safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines now and into the future. Canada has secured COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna for 2022 and 2023, with options to extend into 2024. Some doses have been deferred from the initial agreements to 2022.
In addition to providing booster vaccine doses, the agreements provide flexibility to procure new second-generation COVID-19 vaccines adaptations, such as those to protect against mutations or variants of concern, and vaccines developed for younger populations.
| Supplier | Initial agreement doses | Future supply | Authorized |
|---|---|---|---|
| AstraZeneca | 20 million | No | AstraZeneca Vaxzevria authorization |
| Verity Pharmaceuticals Canada Inc./Serum Institute of India (in collaboration with AstraZeneca Canada Inc.) | 2 million | No | Interim order expired on September 16, 2021 table note 1 |
| Moderna | 44 million table note 2 | Agreement amendment with Moderna: Up to 35 million for 2022 table note 2, up to 35 million in 2023, and up to 35 million in 2024 | Moderna Spikevax authorization |
| Pfizer | Up to 76 million | Agreement amendment with Pfizer: Up to 65 million for 2022, up to 60 million in 2023 and up to 60 million in 2024 | Pfizer-BioNTech Comirnaty authorization |
| Johnson & Johnson table note 3 | Up to 38 million | No | Johnson & Johnson authorization |
| Medicago | Up to 76 million | No | No |
| Novavax | Up to 76 million | No | No |
| Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline | Up to 72 million | No | No |
Table notes
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Vaccine donations
Canada is committed to a comprehensive and global response to the pandemic and is working to ensure that countries across the world have access to COVID-19 vaccines through our investments in the COVID-19 Vaccine Global Access (COVAX) Facility and the donation of surplus vaccine doses.
Canada’s international vaccine donations
Vaccine-related supplies
The Government of Canada has put in place contracts for the supplies required to administer nearly 75 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines, including syringes, needles and gauze. To date, we have received all supplies.
Canada has ordered 286.9 million syringes of varying sizes to accommodate a range of requirements in the administration of vaccines. This includes 196.7 million 1-millilitre syringes, of which 180.8 million are low-dead-volume syringes and 14.5 million are ultra low-dead-volume syringes. Canada has also ordered 81 million low-dead-volume needles. We anticipate having sufficient supply of syringes to administer pediatric doses.
Freezers and dry ice
Given the complexity of vaccine distribution, including the need to transport and store vaccines at specific temperatures, PSPC has also procured other goods and services required to support the distribution of vaccines to everyone in Canada.
Freezers and refrigerators
The Government of Canada has purchased 616 freezers and 100 refrigerators.
PSPC, on behalf of PHAC, has awarded contracts for the purchase of:
- 405 freezers at -80 degrees Celsius
- 100 freezers at -20 degrees Celsius
- 111 refrigerator/freezer combos at -20 degrees Celsius
- 100 refrigerators
Dry ice
The Government of Canada has awarded standing offers for the national delivery of tens of thousands of kilograms of dry ice weekly, on an as-needed basis to 10 Canadian companies:
- ATES Medical, located in Quebec, with national delivery capacity
- Biogivre Inc., located in Quebec, with national delivery capacity
- Calgary Dry Ice, located in Alberta, delivering to southern Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia
- Camelyon Group, located in Ontario, with national delivery capacity
- Co2blast Ltd., located in Alberta, delivering to Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia
- Dry Ice & Gases Co., located in Ontario, delivering to Quebec, Ontario and Manitoba
- Fraser Valley Dry Ice Inc., located in British Columbia, with national delivery capacity
- ICE-ASAP, located in Ontario, delivering to southern Ontario
- Praxair Canada Inc., located in Ontario, with national delivery capacity
- VitalAire Canada Inc., located in Ontario, with national delivery capacity
The provinces and territories are able to issue call-ups against these offers directly, to meet immediate needs without delay.
National vaccine management information technology platform
On behalf of PHAC, PSPC contracted a service provider to build further functionality into PHAC’s existing operational and well-developed surveillance and coverage information technology (IT) systems, to help manage vaccine rollout, administration and reporting as the volume of deliveries increases. Requests for Proposals were issued directly to qualified suppliers on December 12, 2020, and a contract was awarded to Deloitte Inc.. with a value of $16,138,945.90, taxes included, on January 7, 2021.
News
- Government of Canada receives first shipments of pediatric vaccine doses (November 23, 2021)
- Canada announces accelerated delivery of COVID-19 pediatric vaccine pending regulatory authorization (October 21, 2021)
- Government of Canada releases COVID-19 vaccine procurement contracts (June 14, 2021)
- Canada to receive 2 million doses of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine manufactured by the Serum Institute of India (February 26, 2021)
- Government of Canada awards contract to distribute COVID-19 vaccine from coast to coast to coast (December 7, 2020)
- Public Services and Procurement Canada has signed agreements with 7 companies to secure access to 7 COVID-19 vaccine candidates (November 19, 2020)
- AstraZeneca: New agreements to secure additional vaccine candidates for COVID-19 (September 25, 2020)
- Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline: Government of Canada signs new agreement to secure additional vaccine candidate and treatment for COVID-19(September 22, 2020)
- Medicago: Prime Minister announces funding to advance the development of Canadian COVID-19 vaccine technologies(October 23, 2020)
- Johnson & Johnson and Novavax: New measures to ensure the supply of future vaccines and therapies against COVID-19 (August 31, 2020)
- Pfizer and Moderna: Government of Canada announces major steps in treating and preventing COVID-19 through vaccines and therapies (August 5, 2020)
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