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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

We continue to make sure that Canada is prepared to manage COVID-19 and its possible evolutions. To date, Canada has also secured vaccines from Pfizer, Moderna, Novavax and Medicago for 2022 and 2023, with options to extend into 2024.

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.

Vaccine agreements with suppliers
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 51 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 Medicago Covifenz authorization
Novavax Up to 76 million No Novavax Nuvaxovid authorization
Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline Up to 72 million No No

Table notes

Table note 1

The COVISHIELD version of this vaccine provided a temporary supply to Canadians through the Interim Order respecting the importation, sale and advertising of drugs for use in relation to COVID-19. It was not transitioned to the Food and Drug Regulations when the interim order expired on September 16, 2021.

Return to table note 1 referrer

Table note 2

10 million doses have been deferred from the initial agreement to 2022.

Return to table note 2 referrer

Table note 3

All of the vaccine candidates for which Canada has agreements are a 2-dose vaccine, with the exception of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

Return to table note 3 referrer

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:

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:

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.

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