Ottawa Dumps $1.6B in Expired COVID-19 Shots While Still Accepting New Deliveries

A vial of a COVID-19 vaccine is shown in Quebec City on July 13, 2020. (The Canadian Press/HO, Medicago)

Ottawa continues to accept COVID-19 vaccine deliveries despite throwing away expired shots worth nearly $1.6 billion, as demand for the shots drops across the country.

At least 52.9 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine were discarded as of November 2023, according to a Dec. 6 department briefing note from Health Minister Mark Holland, which was obtained by Blacklock’s Reporter. At an estimated cost of $30 per dose, the total vaccine wastage cost comes in at roughly $1.59 billion.

The Public Health Agency continues to accept vaccine deliveries despite throwing away tens of millions of doses, the December note states. The department did not indicate how many more doses of COVID-19 vaccines remain to be delivered and the total number the Public Health Agency signed up to receive.

“The Public Health Agency does not intend to procure additional COVID-19 vaccines once firm contractual deliveries under existing Advance Purchase Agreements are completed at the end of the calendar year 2024 for messenger RiboNucleic Acid vaccines and in 2024 for non-mRNA vaccines,” the report said.

A Department of Public Works report to the Commons public accounts committee last year said that by the end of 2024, the government expected the delivery of around 90.8 million vaccine doses, enough for four booster shots for each of the 21.8 million Canadians estimated to be fully vaccinated against the virus.

The remaining doses are manufactured by just three companies, Moderna, Pfizer and Novavax, the latter of which was touted as a traditional vaccine, rather than a mRNA vaccine, developed and approved much later.

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Novavax stated last year that due to the dwindling demand for COVID-19 vaccines, the company’s future finances were a major concern. Months later, the company announced it would receive $349.6 million from the Canadian government to compensate for unused doses of the Novavax vaccine.

Quebec-based Medicago received $323 million from the Canadian government to bring vaccine doses to market but was later shut down by its parent company Mitsubishi Chemical Group in early 2023.

Mitsubishi Chemical Group argued that it pulled out of investments in the company due to “significant changes” in the vaccine market, which saw a sharp decline in demand. The federal government was later able to recoup just $40 million of the $323 million investment into the company.

The Conservative Party attempted to pass a motion in January to order the release of all records regarding Medicago’s vaccine contracts with the federal government along with calling for an in-depth study of the issue.

The motion was later amended to only allow members of the Standing Committee on Health (HESA) to look at the unredacted contracts and was supported and approved by the Liberals, the Bloc Quebecois, and the NDP.