Moderna’s (NASDAQ:MRNA) vaccine against COVID-19 is close to being approved for use in Canada.
The chief medical adviser at Health Canada says things are on track for the government department to approve Moderna’s vaccine for COVID-19 "very soon."
Dr. Supriya Sharma says things "look positive" for the vaccine from U.S. biotech firm Moderna but there are still some outstanding manufacturing documents needed before the decision can be finalized.
Ongoing reviews of two more vaccines are less certain, with AstraZeneca's COVID-19 inoculation potentially needing more study before Health Canada is ready to make a decision, and Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) vaccine candidate's review still in the very early stages.
Health Canada approved the vaccine from Pfizer-BioNTech on December 9, and the first doses began arriving in Canada on December 13. Health care workers in Toronto and long-term care residents in Montreal and Quebec City were the first to receive the Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) vaccine.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is to meet on December 17 to discuss Moderna's application. Health Canada has been reviewing Moderna's vaccine since October, and Dr. Sharma said the final clinical data was provided from the company on December 11.
Pfizer and Moderna together are expected to deliver 60 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine to Canada by next fall, enough to vaccinate 30 million people. Both Pfizer's and Moderna's vaccines require two doses -- 21 days apart for Pfizer and 28 days apart for Moderna. However, Pfizer's vaccine has much stricter cold-chain requirements that are restricting the places it can be delivered.
Moderna's vaccine can survive in regular freezers and it will be prioritized for delivery to Canada’s Northwest Territories, remote Indigenous communities and long-term care sites.
