Canada to donate 10M unused Johnson & Johnson vaccine doses to poor countries

Health Canada ultimately determined the doses could not be verified and returned them to the company.

As with the other vaccines that Canada purchased, the government has not revealed how much it agreed to pay for the J&J shots.

The federal government announced last month that it would donate nearly 18 million doses of the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine to poorer countries.

At the time, Procurement Minister Anita Anand said after talking to the provinces, the federal government determined these vaccine doses were excess supply, as demand for the AstraZeneca vaccine had been met.

At the G7 meeting in June, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pledged that Canada would give back at least 13 million doses it was set to receive through a contract with COVAX, on top of millions of dollars already set aside for the global vaccine effort.

The government also announced earlier this week that Canada would be sending 82,000 shots through a country-to-country agreement to Trinidad and Tobago.

Canada has now committed to donate a total of 40 million doses, Gould said.

Anand said the federal government plans to keep four million doses in reserve at all times to ensure Canada has enough of a supply for itself.

“The purpose of the reserves is to ensure that vaccines are on hand for Canadians when they are needed, while at the same time ensuring that doses are available for other countries,” Anand said.

“Canadian doses that are identified as surplus will be donated to international partners on an ongoing basis.”

Some critics have accused rich countries of hoarding extra doses while most of their populations are already vaccinated while those that are worse off are unable to get shots.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 12, 2021.

Lee Berthiaume, The Canadian Press

by The Canadian Press

Canada to donate 10M unused Johnson & Johnson vaccine doses to poor countries

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