OTTAWA — A massive new Toronto vaccine factory, tasked with making flu shots and preparing for the next pandemic, won't start producing shots until 2027 — as much as a year later than the company initially envisioned when the plant was first announced. The news came Thursday as the company, Sanofi, announced the opening of a separate vaccine factory in Toronto, which is billed as the largest in Canada. The newly opened Sanofi facility is expected to significantly increase Canada's domestic production of pediatric and adult vaccines for whooping cough, diphtheria and tetanus.
During the pandemic, Canada was left flat-footed in the race to procure COVID-19 vaccines because there was no domestic capability to make them. It meant Canada had to pay a premium to get in the queue for the first doses produced, and also led the federal government to invest heavily to quickly build up the biomanufacturing sector. That included $415 million from Canada and another $55 million from the Ontario government to build a flu vaccine and pandemic preparedness plant at Sanofi's Toronto campus that would be "operational" by 2026.
Matthieu Puyet, Toronto site head for Sanofi, said Thursday that facility will now be operational in 2027. The plant construction will be completed by the initial deadline, the company explained in a statement Thursday, but will then undergo the regulatory rigour needed before it can start producing vaccines. "The first commercial batches are expected in 2027," Sanof.
