By Canadian Press

Liberals launch pandemic preparedness agency, seeking faster vaccine development

Sep 24, 2024 | 2:13 PM

OTTAWA — The federal Liberals are creating a new agency to beef up Canada’s ability to handle rapidly spreading infectious diseases and protect from future pandemics.

Health Emergency Readiness Canada is tasked with boosting Canada’s life-sciences sector and ensuring Canadians get faster access to vaccines, medical therapies and diagnostics by accelerating the transition from research to commercialization.

It will co-ordinate efforts between Canadian industry and academic researchers as well as with international partners.

This follows a similar move by the European Union to create an agency in 2021 that not only tries to prepare the continent for pandemics, but seeks to learn from mistakes during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Once fully operational it will have an “industrial game plan” to move quickly on research and industrial mobilization if another health emergency like a pandemic is declared.

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Canada was not adequately prepared for the COVID-19 pandemic with an outdated and understocked emergency stockpile, and a virtually non-existent vaccine production industry.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 24, 2024.

Dylan Robertson, The Canadian Press