Canadian COVID-19 vaccine manufacturer Medicago Inc. shutting down
After 24 years in operation, a Quebec-based drug producer that produced a Canadian COVID-19 vaccine and different plant-based medicine is closing.
Parent firm Mitsubishi Chemical Group introduced on Thursday it plans to close down Medicago Inc., headquartered in Quebec City, “in due course, in accordance with local laws and regulations.”
Medicago, which started working in Quebec in 1999, describes itself as “one of few” producers on this planet with the aptitude to develop each vaccines and monoclonal antibody remedies, that are used to stop and deal with a broad vary of illnesses, together with cancers, Crohn’s illness, arthritis, a number of sclerosis and COVID-19.
Last yr, Health Canada permitted Medicago’s plant-based COVID-19 vaccine, Covifenz, for adults aged 18 to 64. The vaccine was meant to be administered in two doses, and scientific trials confirmed it was 71 per cent efficient in stopping COVID-19 an infection starting one week after the second dose.
In October 2020, earlier than the vaccine was permitted, the federal authorities penned a deal to purchase as much as 76 million doses of the drug, along with offering $173 million in funding to help the vaccine’s improvement and the development of a brand new Quebec City manufacturing plant.
Medicago had been getting ready to launch commercial-scale manufacturing of the vaccine, however its father or mother firm introduced Friday it might stop all of its operations, citing modifications to the COVID-19 vaccine panorama, international demand for COVID-19 vaccines ,and “Medicago’s challenges in transitioning to commercial-scale production.”
“The group judged that it was not viable to continue to make further investment in the commercialization of Medicago’s development products, and decided to cease all of its operations at Medicago and proceed with an orderly wind up of its business and operations,” in accordance with an announcement printed on Mitsubishi Chemical Group’s web site Thursday.
In a submit to Twitter on Thursday, Quebec City Mayor Bruno Marchand known as the closure a “huge pity.”
“My thoughts are with the families who learned some very sad news today,” he wrote in French. “We have to roll up our sleeves to keep all this expertise in the field of health innovation in Quebec.”
With information from The Canadian Press
