Five months after being declared a pandemic, COVID-19 continues to burn through country after country. Public health orders for social distancing and mask usage, as well as increased testing and contact tracing, have slowed but not halted the virus’ spread. In countries like Australia and Israel, second waves of infection are now an established fact. Other places will soon follow.
Governments have belatedly accepted that, until a vaccine is discovered, the virus will always find its way back into the population. The rollout of one or many proven vaccines has thus become a top priority. Without it, further lockdowns and their related economic disruption may become unavoidable, a prospect dreaded by capitalists the world over. As a result, a global race has taken hold of every major nation to acquire a vaccine—a race that now includes Canada.
Buyers beware
In recent days, Canada signed agreements with Pfizer and Moderna, two foreign drug companies, to acquire millions of doses of their respective vaccine candidates. The exact volume and price tag of the purchase is unknown.
Both potential serums are in the advanced third stage of clinical testing, meaning they may be released sometime in 2021. However, even if that timeline were met, it would not end Canada’s problems.
Vaccine trials typically take years, and as long as a decade, to prove their efficacy. The threat of COVID-19, as well a vaccine’s potential to generate large profits, has led to this process being sped up to under a year in some cases. The less time spent in the lab, the greater the room for error—particularly in the hands of profit-hungry drug firms. The vaccines that are released may be of limited use, requiring multiple doses, and thus create a false sense of security in those who receive it.
However, even if the first vaccines were effective, it may be a long time before Canada receives them. Countries including the U.S., Japan and Britain have also placed orders from Pfizer and Moderna, as well as other leading vaccine candidates. The potential for individual countries to hoard a vaccine, as they did with personal protective equipment, is high.
In such a contest, Canada, which has lower drug manufacturing capacity and less purchasing ability than most of its major competitors, is not likely to come out on top. During a 1976 swine flu outbreak, the U.S. vaccinated its entire population before allowing shipments to Canada. U.S. President Donald Trump’s pledge of “America First,” as well as his rapid purchase of 100 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine, raises fears it could happen again today.
The situation is no more optimistic outside North America. In recent months, Canada has partnered with CanSino Biologics, a Chinese drug firm, to jointly develop and manufacture a vaccine. However, Canada’s trials of the serum, which were slated to begin in May, still have yet to launch. The first shipments have been held up on China’s end, which some analysts suspect is due to political tensions between the two countries.
In the race for a COVID-19 vaccine, it is every country for itself.
The “made in Canada option”
In response to Canada’s difficulties in the global market, some have touted a “made in Canada option” for a potential vaccine.
On the same day it unveiled the purchase from Pfizer and Moderna, Canada’s federal government also announced $59 million in funding for clinical trials by two Canadian firms. This follows earlier funding for Medicago, a Quebec-based drug firm which leads the pack for development of a COVID-19 serum in Canada.
However, Canada’s drug firms operate with far less resources than their international counterparts. Medicago, by far the most likely to turn out a vaccine, is only in the first phase of testing, compared with dozens of foreign firms that have already entered the second or third stage.
The situation is more bleak when it comes to manufacturing a potential serum. Even if Canada were to rapidly turn out a vaccine, it does not have the industrial capacity to produce it en masse. “At one point, Canada was well positioned in terms of manufacturing capacity… that capacity was lost,” noted one leading doctor in a recent Toronto Star article.
Medicago’s production facility is not located in Canada, but in the U.S. The Sandoz Pharmaceutical facility, based in Quebec, is perhaps the only one in the country that can produce vaccines on a large scale. However, it is already geared towards producing other necessary medications, and is too small to produce the amount of vaccine that Canada needs. As such, Canada is forced to rely on other countries to produce vaccines for it.
This was not always the case. In the early 20th century, Canada had its own publicly-owned pharmaceutical company: Connaught Labs. Its achievements included helping to develop penicillin, as well as aiding in the eradication of smallpox. “…[W]e could have used Connaught Labs for our domestic COVID-19 vaccine supply today, if not for our drug supply,” said one doctor in a CBC opinion piece. Unfortunately, Connaught Labs was later sold to a French drug company under Brian Mulroney, erasing what was left of Canada’s domestic drug manufacturing.
The private sector has failed to fill the vacuum left behind. Investment in both vaccine development and production is generally seen as “high risk, low return” by profit-hungry pharmaceutical firms. This is particularly true in Canada, where firms are smaller and operate on tighter margins, making them even more risk-averse. The minimal investment that does take place often happens outside the market, such as in universities, and is typically funded by the state. Canada’s ebola vaccine, one of the few serums of any kind to be developed in recent years, was discovered by university researchers and funded almost entirely by taxpayers.
In total, Canada spends about $1 billion a year on medical research—research that is then handed over to big pharma to do with as they please. In addition, millions more are doled out every year to pharmaceutical firms in hope of enticing them to pursue public aims, with no result. If instead, these firms had been taken into public ownership and then merged into a single state mega-firm; if instead of corporate handouts, public money was used to develop public research and drug production, the rapid development of a COVID-19 vaccine in Canada would now be a real possibility. However, doing so would have meant violating the laws of capitalism, and so was never carried out—dashing any hope for a “made in Canada” solution.
Global problem, global solution
Canada does not have the ability to produce a COVID-19 serum at the scale it needs—a predicament faced by most countries, save for a few major players.
However, while the resources may not exist on a national scale, they do exist on an international scale. The problem is that these resources—scientists, labs and production facilities—are shackled by the profit motive and nation state; dividing them, stifling their potential, and making their distribution more irrational. As such, it is possible for one nation to vaccinate its entire population long before another, potentially more afflicted country receives its first batch of serums—simply because one is richer than another, and nets fatter profits.
Moreover, hiding research behind national barriers restricts the flow of information, slowing the development of a vaccine for all countries—including those with the capacity to develop their own. In recent weeks, numerous sources have accused Russia of snooping on U.S., British and Canadian vaccine research. The only question not asked: why should research into a life-saving vaccine be secret in the first place? The answer: because the profits of “our” pharmaceutical giants must be protected. In a system governed by profit, this is perfectly logical—despite its harmful repercussions for billions of people.
In a rational system, the barriers facing industry and science would be thrown aside. The resources of all nations could be pooled together for the maximum benefit of the global population. However, this is not possible under capitalism, which subordinates both to the profit motive, then subdivides them based on lines on a map. The only alternative is to take these resources into collective ownership, not just on a national but an international scale, and to institute a global plan of socialist production that puts need before profit, science before narrowmindedness, and which unshackles the creative forces of humanity from the straitjacket of capitalism.
Canada has entered the race for a vaccine, but it is impossible to win, and unlikely to make the podium. However, the real issue is that a race exists at all. To fight a global pandemic requires global cooperation—and for that is required a new social order.
