Tag: Health Canada

Published by: The Globe and Mail
Published on: August 27, 2025
By Kelly Grant

Beginning this fall, all Ontarians 75 and older will be eligible for a free shot that protects against respiratory syncytial virus.

Ontario Health Minister Sylvia Jones is scheduled to announce the expansion of public coverage for RSV vaccines on Wednesday, according to a Ministry of Health release that The Globe and Mail obtained in advance.

Until now, the Ontario government only paid for the RSV vaccine for seniors who were 60 and older and considered high risk, such as transplant recipients, dialysis patients and nursing home residents.

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vaccines

Health Canada approves updated Pfizer, Moderna COVID-19 vaccines for fall

Published August 22, 2025

Published by: The Canadian Press
Published on: August 22, 2025
By Nicole Ireland

TORONTO – Health Canada has authorized updated COVID-19 vaccines by Pfizer and BioNTech and by Moderna for use this respiratory virus season.

Moderna says it will manufacture vaccine doses for the Canadian market in its new facility in Laval, Quebec and syringes will be filled in Cambridge, Ontario.

News releases from both Pfizer and Moderna say the new mRNA shots will target the LP.8.1 variant, a descendant of Omicron that the World Health Organization was monitoring earlier this year.

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vaccines

Moderna Receives Health Canada Approval for Updated COVID-19 Vaccine Targeting SARS-CoV-2 Variant LP.8.1

Published August 22, 2025

Published by: Access Newswire
Published on: August 22, 2025
By Moderna

All 2025 pre-filled syringe doses to be made in Canada, marking a domestic production milestone

CAMBRIDGE, MA / ACCESS Newswire / August 22, 2025 / Moderna announced today that Health Canada has authorized its updated COVID-19 mRNA vaccine, Spikevax®, targeting the SARS-CoV-2 LP.8.1 variant, for individuals aged six months and older. Moderna is on track to deliver the updated vaccine in time for the 2025-2026 vaccination season.

All Spikevax pre-filled syringe (PFS) doses for the Canadian market will now be manufactured domestically, marking the first time Canada’s entire PFS format is produced at home. The drug substance will be produced at Moderna’s new facility in Laval, Quebec, with fill-finish operations completed by Novocol Pharma in Cambridge, Ontario. These Canadian-made doses are expected to be available for this fall.

“This approval is a regulatory milestone and a testament to Canada’s growing leadership in biomanufacturing and public health resilience,” said Stéphane Bancel, Chief Executive Officer of Moderna. “Thanks to Health Canada’s timely and thorough review, we are proud to supply Spikevax doses to communities across the country, including, for the first time this year, doses produced in Canada.”

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vaccines

Pfizer Canada and BioNTech Receive Health Canada Approval of LP.8.1 Variant Adapted COVID-19 Vaccine

Published August 18, 2025

Published by: CNW
Published on: August 18, 2025
By Pfizer Canada Inc.

LP.8.1 variant adapted COVID-19 vaccine COMIRNATY is now authorized in Canada for individuals 6 months of age and older. It is expected to be available in Canada in the coming weeks.

KIRKLAND, QC, Aug. 18, 2025 /CNW/ – Pfizer Canada ULC and BioNTech SE (Nasdaq: BNTX) “BioNTech” announced today that Health Canada has authorized the LP.8.1 variant adapted COMIRNATY^® COVID-19 vaccine for individuals aged 6 months and older. The updated COMIRNATY^® vaccine targets the Omicron LP.8.1 variant, one of the most recently circulating SARS-CoV-2 lineages.

This season’s Pfizer and BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine will be available in pharmacies across the country in the fall. The public program operates according to the eligibility criteria determined by each province. If an individual meets these criteria, they will be eligible to receive the vaccine for free.

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Alberta

Alberta government weighs future of COVID-19 vaccination as federal program winds down

Published January 15, 2025

Published by: CBC News
Published on: January 15, 2025
By Jennifer Lee

No answer on whether COVID shots will continue to be free in Alberta once change takes effect

The future of Alberta’s COVID-19 vaccination program is unclear with federal funding set to end this summer.

Ottawa has been paying for the shots and distributing them across the country since they became available.

But the Public Health Agency of Canada quietly announced, last week, the provinces and territories will take over purchasing their own supply of COVID-19 vaccines.

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vaccines

Let’s put Montreal’s idle pharmaceutical plant to good use

Published November 28, 2024

Published by: Montreal Gazette
Published on: November 28, 2024
By Adam R. Houston, Jason Nickerson

When COVID-19 first struck, Canada had a problem: It lacked domestic capacity to manufacture vaccines. Today, the government of Canada faces the opposite problem: It owns a factory that isn’t manufacturing vaccines.

The Biologics Manufacturing Centre (BMC) in Montreal was completed in 2021 at the cost of $126 million, and fully licensed by Health Canada in 2022. However, a 2021 deal with Novavax to produce their COVID-19 vaccine looks increasingly unlikely to produce a single dose. Indeed, despite annual operating costs around $17 million a year, the BMC has never produced anything.

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vaccines

COVID-19 boosters start rolling out to some Canadians. Who can get them?

Published October 4, 2024

Published by: Global News
Published on: October 4, 2024
By Saba Aziz

Updated COVID-19 vaccines are starting to roll out to some high-risk Canadians, but others will have to wait a little while longer before these new shots are offered to them.

Last month, Health Canada approved Pfizer and Moderna’s latest COVID-19 vaccines targeting the most recent variants of the virus.

Both shots are approved for everyone aged six months and older.

The new mRNA vaccines from both pharmaceutical companies target the KP.2 subvariant of Omicron that was dominating COVID-19 spread earlier this year.

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vaccines

Health Canada approves Pfizer-BioNTech’s updated COVID-19 vaccine

Published September 24, 2024

Published by: The Canadian Press
Published on: September 24, 2024
By Nicole Ireland, Hannah Alberga

Health Canada approved Pfizer-BioNTech’s updated COVID-19 vaccine on Tuesday, marking its third authorization of vaccine formulations that protect against the most recently circulating variants of the virus.

Pfizer-BioNTech’s mRNA vaccine, called Comirnaty, targets the KP.2 subvariant of Omicron, replacing the previous version that targeted the XBB.1.5 Omicron subvariant.

The approval of Comirnaty follows last week’s authorization of Moderna’s updated Spikevax mRNA vaccine and Novavax’s updated protein-based vaccine, Nuvaxovid.

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Alberta

Moderna’s updated COVID-19 vaccine is coming to Alberta, but Novavax shots are not

Published September 23, 2024

Published by: CBC News
Published on: September 23, 2024
By Jennifer Lee

With the approval of Moderna’s updated COVID-19 vaccine, doctors are hoping the shots will be available soon and Albertans will opt to roll up their sleeves to get one.

Last week, Health Canada announced it had authorized Moderna’s new formulation, which targets the recent KP.2 subvariant, and that shipments would arrive within days.

A decision on Pfizer’s new formulation is expected in the next few weeks.

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vaccines

Health Canada approves updated Novavax COVID-19 vaccine

Published September 19, 2024

Published by: CTV News
Published on: September 19, 2024
By Lynn Chaya

An updated version of Novavax’s COVID-19 vaccine has been approved by Canada’s health agency.

According to a Thursday update on the government’s vaccine portal, Health Canada will replace the older version of the protein-based vaccine, Nuvaxovid XBB.1.5. The new version will include an update to the antigen composition targeting the JN.1 variant.

“After a thorough scientific review Health Canada has approved the company’s JN.1 Variant vaccine,” the agency posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.

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vaccines

No Novavax COVID-19 vaccine in Canada this fall, immunocompromised N.B. woman feels ‘expendable’

Published September 6, 2024

Published by: CBC News
Published on: September 6, 2024
By Bobbi-Jean MacKinnon

Linda Wilhelm, 64, of Bloomfield, N.B., is planning a road trip to the United States. But it’s not to go sightseeing or shopping.

Wilhelm, who suffers from severe rheumatoid arthritis, hopes to get the updated Novavax COVID-19 vaccine, which won’t be available in Canada as part of the fall vaccination campaign, unless provinces and territories order doses on their own.

Wilhelm, president of the Canadian Arthritis Patient Alliance and a member of the Canadian Immunocompromised Advocacy Network, says the protein-based vaccine is a better option for immunocompromised people like her than the more common Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna mRNA vaccines. She says she feels “expendable” and urges the federal government to reconsider.

Less than two months ago, the network wrote to numerous federal, provincial and territorial officials, calling for improved access to Novavax and increased awareness.

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British Columbia

COVID shots available in B.C. until new vaccines arrive: province

Published September 5, 2024

Published by: CBC News / The Canadian Press
Published on: September 5, 2024

British Columbia says its current supply of COVID-19 vaccines will remain available until new formulations are approved — unlike other provinces that say they’re following a federal directive to destroy existing doses.

A spokesperson for the provincial health officer says B.C. residents are encouraged to wait for the updated COVID vaccines if possible, but people can still get last season’s shots if they need them.

Officials in Alberta, Ontario, Quebec and Saskatchewan and say they are following instructions from the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) to dispose of vaccine stocks that target the XBB.1.5 variant, since updated formulations are expected this fall.

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vaccines

Health Canada orders provinces to destroy old COVID-19 vaccines amid wait for new batch

Published September 4, 2024

Published by: CTV News
Published on: September 4, 2024
By Luca Caruso-Moro

Health Canada has directed provinces to withdraw and destroy remaining supplies of last year’s COVID-19 vaccines while it works to authorize updated shots, which is expected to happen in October, according to Ontario’s health ministry.

“Vaccines will be available once Ontario receives supply from Health Canada following their regulatory authorization of the new, updated vaccine formulation,” read a statement from Ontario spokesperson Hannah Jensen.

A notice posted on the federal government’s immunization guide says vaccines aimed at Omicron variant XBB.1.5 is no longer available in Canada. Updated shots, made to target the now-dominant JN.1 or KP.2 strains are expected to get the green light “in the coming weeks.”

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pro-virus policies

Video | Feds to stop providing free COVID-19 rapid tests

Published May 23, 2024

Published by: Global News
Published on: May 23, 2024

The federal government, which spent billions on COVID-19 rapid tests during the height of the pandemic, says it will stop supplying provinces and territories with those tests. Heidi Petracek explains the move, and the reaction from some provinces and doctors.

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rapid tests

Ottawa will stop providing COVID-19 rapid tests to regions

Published May 7, 2024

Published by: CBC News
Published on: May 7, 2024
By Bobbi-Jean MacKinnon

The Canadian government plans to stop supplying provinces and territories with free COVID-19 rapid tests, which has an infection control epidemiologist worried about two-tiered health care, increased spread and increased health-care costs.

“The federal government continues to support Canada’s rapid testing needs while the federal inventory remains,” Health Canada spokesperson Nicholas Janveau told CBC News.

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Paxlovid

Paxlovid to no longer be provided to provinces for free

Published April 1, 2024

Published by: CTV News
Published on: April 1, 2024
By Charles Lefebvre

The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) is no longer paying for an antiviral pill used to treat COVID-19.

The PHAC said it will no longer procure Paxlovid, which is intended to be used after being diagnosed with COVID, for provinces and territories.

“The provinces and territories are responsible for determining how best to implement and manage the available supply of COVID-19 therapeutics, including Paxlovid,” a spokesperson for Health Canada said in a statement.

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rapid tests

Health Canada ignored warning signs before Ottawa spent billions on BTNX rapid tests

Published January 11, 2024

Published by: Global News
Published on: January 11, 2024
By Patti Sonntag

Health Canada ignored critical warnings about a rapid-test supplier before approving its COVID-19 kits for distribution nationwide, Global News has found.

A year-long Global News investigation into federal procurement revealed that BTNX, a Toronto-area rapid-test supplier that buys the devices from China, deleted dozens of specimens, or samples, from a study it submitted to Health Canada in October 2020. Deleting the specimens increased the estimate of the rapid test’s ability to detect the virus.

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respiratory syncytial virus

Health Canada approves RSV vaccine for maternal immunization

Published January 4, 2024

Published by: CBC News
Published on: January 4, 2024
By Jessica Wong

Health Canada has approved a new vaccine geared toward protecting two groups most severely affected by the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV): newborns, who would receive antibodies through maternal immunization, and Canadians over 60.

Pfizer Canada’s bivalent vaccine, called Abrysvo, aims to prevent lower respiratory tract disease caused by the virus.

It is the first RSV vaccine in Canada approved for use in pregnancy to provide protection for infants from birth to six months of age, and the second approved for seniors aged 60 and over.

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No answer on whether COVID shots will continue to be free in Alberta once change takes effect

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