Canada PM Justine Trudeau announces $800 million deal with AstraZeneca of COVID-19 vaccine

Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced on Friday, September 25 that his government has entered into an agreement with British pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca to procure their COVID-19 vaccine once it tested safe. As per reports, the agreement states that Canada will receive 20 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

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Canada's COVID-19 vaccine deal

During a press conference, the Canadian Prime Minister said, “I can announce that we have reached an agreement with AstraZeneca for the vaccine they are developing with the University of Oxford. This agreement secures up to 20 million doses for Canadians, should the vaccine trials be successful”.

According to reports, Canada now has tentative deals with 12 potential COVID-19 vaccine candidates. Canada’s deal with AstraZeneca does not allow for refunds, meaning that if AstraZeneca’s vaccine is never approved the country will still have to give the pharmaceutical company $800 million.

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Canda has also announced that it will be contributing $328.32 million towards COVAX, which is a global vaccine distribution initiative backed by the World Health Organisation. Trudeau is reported to have expressed disappointment that several large nations have not contributed to the effort and are instead focusing on domestic vaccine production.

Canada is currently experiencing the second wave of the COVID-9 pandemic and now has more than 150,000 reported positeve cases with the death toll shooting over 9,000. According to the country’s health agency, there are more than 11,000 active virus cases in Canada.

The COVID-19 pandemic which saw its first outbreak in a wet market in Wuhan, China last year has now spread all across the world. The virus, named COVID-19 by the World Health Organisation, has infected over 32.4 million people worldwide with the global death toll reaching over 987,000.

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(With ANI inputs; Image Credits: AP)