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While Saskatchewan’s COVID vaccine campaign has begun, the local team working on a different vaccine is still hard at work.
Dr. Volker Gerdts, the CEO of Saskatoon’s VIDO-InterVac, joined Gormley on Thursday to discuss the progress his team is making and answer some common questions about the vaccine campaign.
Gerdts confirmed that the centre, which works with international partners to study disease and develop vaccines, is waiting on approval to begin clinical trials of its vaccine candidate.
“We did submit our application to Health Canada to start clinical trials,” Gerdts confirmed. “They are reviewing it at the moment and we are expecting to hear any day now, for sure before Christmas, whether we get the green light to start our trials.”
One point he clarified is why they’re continuing to work on a COVID vaccine when the Pfizer vaccine has already been approved by Health Canada, and the Moderna candidate isn’t far behind.
“It’s very important that we get as many vaccines as possible out there,” he explained. “There are some things we don’t know about these new vaccines and some things that are quite complicated.
“The Pfizer vaccine, for example, requires super-cold freezers, so that’s going to be a very big challenge to give it in remote Saskatchewan or our northern communities. We don’t know how many doses we’ll get, we don’t know what the cost is … so there are still a lot of questions to be answered.”
He also thinks it would be practical to have a vaccine developed in our country.
“I think it’s good for Canada as a nation to continue to develop Canadian vaccines for Canadians, to ensure that in the long term, all Canadians have access to good vaccines,” he said.
Another issue brought up was whether it’s possible for COVID to mutate and make vaccines less effective.
“That’s always a concern. Viruses mutate, that is just a fact of life … So far, with all the mutations that have occurred for COVID-19, we have not seen any that concern us at the moment,” Gerdts explained.