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Source: https://globalnews.ca/news/9328201/canada-covid-vaccines-benefits-ag-reports/
$1B worth of COVID vaccines likely to expire soon: AG report
By Teresa Wright Global News
Posted December 6, 2022 6:28 am
Updated December 6, 2022 3:10 pm
Millions of surplus doses of COVID-19 vaccines worth an estimated $1 billion are set to expire by the end of the year due to problems with the technology used to track the distribution and use of doses, Canada’s auditor general has found.
Karen Hogan also flagged ongoing problems with data-sharing between the federal and provincial governments, which she says caused the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) to struggle with sharing detailed case‑level information on vaccine safety with Health Canada, vaccine companies and the World Health Organization (WHO).
“While the organizations involved were successful in securing vaccines and quickly distributing them to the provinces and territories, the Public Health Agency of Canada’s efforts to minimize wastage were unsuccessful,” Horgan said during a news conference in Ottawa Tuesday.
Overall, the auditor general said two federal agencies tasked with procuring vaccines – PHAC and Procurement Canada – did a good job of quickly and efficiently securing purchase agreements with vaccine manufacturers to ensure enough doses would be available to vaccinate every person in Canada.
Procurement Canada established advance purchase agreements in 2020 with seven companies that showed potential to develop viable vaccines.
However, because of requirements in these purchase agreements to buy minimum numbers of doses, the PHAC ended up with a large surplus of doses – a situation the agency knew would be a likely outcome, Hogan says in her report...
$1B worth of COVID vaccines likely to expire soon: AG report
By Teresa Wright Global News
Posted December 6, 2022 6:28 am
Updated December 6, 2022 3:10 pm
Millions of surplus doses of COVID-19 vaccines worth an estimated $1 billion are set to expire by the end of the year due to problems with the technology used to track the distribution and use of doses, Canada’s auditor general has found.
Karen Hogan also flagged ongoing problems with data-sharing between the federal and provincial governments, which she says caused the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) to struggle with sharing detailed case‑level information on vaccine safety with Health Canada, vaccine companies and the World Health Organization (WHO).
“While the organizations involved were successful in securing vaccines and quickly distributing them to the provinces and territories, the Public Health Agency of Canada’s efforts to minimize wastage were unsuccessful,” Horgan said during a news conference in Ottawa Tuesday.
Overall, the auditor general said two federal agencies tasked with procuring vaccines – PHAC and Procurement Canada – did a good job of quickly and efficiently securing purchase agreements with vaccine manufacturers to ensure enough doses would be available to vaccinate every person in Canada.
Procurement Canada established advance purchase agreements in 2020 with seven companies that showed potential to develop viable vaccines.
However, because of requirements in these purchase agreements to buy minimum numbers of doses, the PHAC ended up with a large surplus of doses – a situation the agency knew would be a likely outcome, Hogan says in her report...