Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced that the federal government has created a $275 million fund for COVID-19 health research, and has allotted $23.3 million of that initiative to the University of Saskatchewan’s Vaccine and Infection Disease Organization.
The federal funding will be provided to the International Vaccine Centre, known as VIDO-InterVac, for its ongoing vaccine development for the new coronavirus pandemic.
Of those funds, $12 million will be used to help address a national shortage of vaccine manufacturing capacity.
The other $11.3 million will be used to continue operation at high containment laboratories for the coming year.
“This new federal funding recognizes that VIDO-InterVac is at the forefront of global efforts to develop a vaccine for COVID-19 and other infectious disease threats,” said USask Vice-President of Research Karen Chad in a press release. “This is critical work at VIDO-InterVac that will help protect the health and safety of all Canadians, as well as people around the world.”
VIDO-InterVac will use the $12 million in federal funding to build a pilot-scale manufacturing facility on campus in Saskatoon to aid in vaccine manufacturing. The Saskatchewan government also pledged $400,000 in the provincial budget for this project.
Construction on the facility is expected to begin in just over a year.
VIDO-InterVac is one of few Canadian research facilities working on the new coronavirus and is also testing antivirals and therapeutics from other Canadian and international companies, alongside its research on vaccines.
There is currently no vaccine for COVID-19, but VIDO-InterVac is the first lab in Canada to have begun animal testing on a potential vaccine candidate.
The vaccine was created in February, and researchers expect to have data regarding the animal trials within a month.
The research facility also recently received $1 million from the federal government for their vaccine research through the federal rapid research funding initiative for projects addressing COVID-19, and the Saskatchewan government also announced $200,000 in funding for their COVID-19 research.
