Industry minister foresees biomanufacturing revival, including vaccines — eventually

OTTAWA — Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne sees a future for Canada as a leader in biomanufacturing, including vaccines — but not soon.

In a speech at the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal, Champagne says he hopes a COVID-19 vaccine can be produced at home in the “medium term” as a federal investment strategy starts to bear fruit.

Multiple COVID-19 vaccine-makers sought domestic partners last year to help produce their products, but Canada’s biomanufacturing industry has shrunk considerably in the last half-century.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced last month that Canada has a new contract with Maryland-based Novavax to eventually churn out doses of its vaccine at a new National Research Council facility going up in Montreal.