The Canadian and Ontario governments are giving $470 million to a French vaccine maker to ensure we aren’t stuck depending on distant foreign suppliers for vaccines whenever the next global pandemic arises. Between now and 2026, Sanofi Pasteur will build a new influenza manufacturing plant on the site of the former Connaught Laboratories in North York. Sanofi is the successor to the French firm that purchased Connaught from the government in the 1980s. Officials said that when completed, the new plant will be able to produce enough “vaccine doses to support the entire Canadian population within approximately six months of the World Health Organization (WHO) identifying a pandemic influenza strain.”Handwringing over
Famous for the discovery of insulin in 1921
Since the Covid pandemic struck, there has been much handwringing over Canada’s inability to make vaccines. It has been particularly galling against Connaught’s distinguished history in the early years of the 20th Century. It is where Frederick Banting, Charles Best and J.J.R. Macleod discovered insulin in 1921.
