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Summary
- Health Canada could approve Pfizer Inc’s COVID-19 vaccine in a week’s time, the health regulator said recently.
- The Canadian government has reserved a supply of more than 400 doses of COVID-19 vaccines from different brands.
- This could mean that the distribution of the vaccine would begin early on next year in Canada.
Health Canada may greenlight Pfizer Inc-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate by the second week of December, medical officials hinted on Thursday, December 3. This could mean that the distribution of the vaccine in the country would begin early on next year, said media reports.
The Canadian government has signed access deals with as many as seven manufacturers of COVID-19 vaccines, having reserved a supply of more than 400 doses. The first official decision is expected to be on the Pfizer (NYSE: PFE, PFE:US) vaccine.
Health Canada chief medical adviser Supriya Sharma reportedly said recently that a final decision regarding the drug is likely to come within a week to 10 days. Deputy chief public health officer Howard Njoo is said to have added that “favorable” outcome is being expected.
Covid vaccines & canadian stock markets
Pfizer Inc and its German research partner BioNTech were the first ones to declare a 90 per cent efficacy of their COVID-19 vaccine candidate. And when it came out with the news on November 9, a broad market rally ensued around the world. The key Canadian index, S&P/TSX Composite, surged by about one per cent that day.
Riskier stocks from the industrial and fossil fuel sectors, which had been pretty much steamrolled by the coronavirus outbreak, started to record a jump in their value following the Pfizer-BioNTech announcement. Investors, who took refuge in safe assets amid the crisis of market collapse, showed renewed interest in riskier stocks.
The S&P/TSX Capped Energy Index swelled by almost 19 per cent on November 9. Stocks of oil and gas companies such as Suncor Energy Inc (TSX:SU) and Canadian Natural Resources Ltd (TSX:CNQ) spiked by about around 20 per cent in a day’s trading session.
At the same time, the hope of a potential vaccine for COVID also saw safe assets lose a bit of their shine.
As for pharmaceutical company Pfizer Inc, its stocks shot up about 13 percent at open on November 9. The shares rose about eight per cent in the month of November.
Not too long after the Pfizer news, Moderna Inc came out with its own successful results of COVID-19 vaccine trials and triggered another round of surge in the stock markets around the world.
Moderna stocks rocketed about 126 per cent in November.
Surge of covid Cases in canada
A number of other manufacturers have come out with potential COVID-19 vaccines and are seeking approval from top medical boards around the world.
With a second wave of the novel coronavirus washing through Canada, the country has so far recorded about 389,778 infections and 12,325 deaths.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has assured that vaccines would be rolled out to the public as soon as Health Canada gives a thumbs-up.
