Health Canada has authorized COVID-19 vaccine clinical trials at Dalhousie University, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said May 16.
The trials are part of work at the Halifax, Nova Scotia’s university’s Canadian Centre for Vaccinology, Trudeau said speaking from Ottawa’s Rideau Cottage.
“Research and development takes time and must be done right,” Trudeau said.
No details on what the clinical trials entail were provided. Dalhousie officials are expected to provide details.
Canada has 75,004 COVID-19 cases as of May 16, the bulk in Quebec followed by Ontario, Canada’s main population concentrations. Some 5,595 people have died nationwide.
On May 15, Trudeau announced $450 million in funding to help Canada’s academic research community during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“By providing these institutions with immediate support, we continue to nurture Canada’s talent pipeline and sustain our innovation capacity, while helping to mitigate the negative impacts of COVID-19 on the research community,” Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry Navdeep Bains said.
On March 12, Health Canada authorized the first COVID-19 serological test for use in Canada, the DiaSorin LIAISON. The department said Canadian laboratories will use the test to detect antibodies specific to COVID-19.
“Serological testing will contribute to a better understanding of whether people who have been infected by COVID-19 are immune to the virus,” the department said. “Further research will also help us fully understand the relationship between positive antibody tests and protection against re-infection.”
Through the work of the federal COVID-19 Immunity Task Force, the department said, at least one million Canadian blood samples will be collected and tested over the next two years to track the virus in the general population and in specific groups at greater risk of having been infected, including health care workers and the elderly.
The department said 18 COVID-19 diagnostic testing devices have been authorized in Canada.
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