Quebec-based COVID-19 vaccine maker Medicago to cease operations
Posted February 2, 2023 9:52 pm.
Last Updated February 3, 2023 11:41 am.
Medicago, the Quebec-based COVID-19 vaccine manufacturer, says it is shutting down operations after the company’s largest shareholder announced it was pulling all investment in the company.
In a statement Japan-based Mitsubishi Chemical Group, which owns a 79 per cent stake in Medicago, cited “significant changes” to the vaccine market as the reason for the decision to close its operations in Canada and the United States.
“Furthermore, the group judged that it was not viable to continue to invest in the commercialization of Medicago’s development products and therefore chose to terminate all its activities with Medicago and proceed with an orderly dissolution of its business affairs and activities,” it said.
The move will affect about 600 jobs in Quebec.
Medicago’s Covifenz vaccine was the first Canadian-developed COVID-19 vaccine to be approved for use by Health Canada in February of last year. It was also the world’s first plant-based vaccine for authorized for human use.
At the time, the Quebec-based biotech company said its vaccine candidate was 71 per cent effective against a range of COVID variants – 75 per cent effective against the Delta variant specifically.
The federal government invested $173 million into the company in 2020 for further research and development of the vaccine as well as increasing capacity at its facility. The government also agreee to buy 20 million doses of its vaccine once it was approved by Health Canada, with the option to purchase 56 million more.
