Question Period Note: COVID-19 vaccine oversupply and dose destruction

C-19 vaccine supply has stabilized and exceeded demand. Country preference, increased supply, and limited capacity to roll out high volumes quickly make it inevitable that there will be some waste.

• Canada has committed to donating the equivalent of at least 200 million doses to the COVAX Facility by the end of 2022.
• The global landscape has shifted, the current challenge is not supply, but delivery and distribution in-country. Countries often need support to ensure these doses can be absorbed, rolled out and administered.
• Canada has contributed approximately $400 million for vaccine roll-out and health systems strengthening in response to COVID-19 in low and lower-middle income countries and is prepared to do more to ensure we turn vaccines into vaccinations.
• Canada is working closely with COVAX and all parties, including manufacturers, to ensure that countries can access Canadian doses available for donation that have the longest shelf life possible.

Vaccinating the world against COVID-19 is critical to protect everyone from COVID-19. Canada remains committed to a comprehensive and global response to the pandemic. We are working to ensure that countries across the world have access to COVID-19 vaccines through investments in the COVID-19 Vaccine Global Access (COVAX) Facility and through the donation of surplus vaccine doses. Since February 2020, Canada has committed over $3.4 billion in international assistance in response to COVID-19. This includes over $2 billion for the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT-A) and approximately $1.4 billion for humanitarian and development assistance programming to respond to the immediate needs created by the pandemic.

Canada has committed to donating the equivalent of at least 200 million doses to the COVAX Facility by the end of 2022. This includes:

Donated vaccine doses: To date, COVAX has delivered 14.8 million doses deemed surplus from Canada's domestic procurements of AstraZeneca, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson (Janssen). These doses are donated on a rolling basis, as they are released by the manufacturers and allocated and delivered to the recipient countries by COVAX.

Financial support to COVAX: To date, Canada's financial contributions have delivered the equivalent of 87 million vaccines doses to COVAX for low and middle-income countries.

Potential future donations of doses or financial support to COVAX: Canada will fulfill the balance of its 200-million dose commitment through further surplus dose donations and/or future financial contributions to the COVAX Facility to procure additional vaccine doses.

The global landscape has shifted from a period of limited supply to one where vaccine doses are readily available and where global supply currently exceeds demand and administration capacity. The current challenge is therefore not supply, but delivery and distribution in-country. As higher volumes of vaccine doses have been made available from the COVAX Facility and through other supply agreements, developing countries often need support to ensure these doses can be absorbed, rolled out and administered.

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