Health Canada has approved use of the COVID-19 vaccine from AstraZeneca, clearing the way for millions of more inoculations in Canada.
Canada’s regulatory experts had been assessing the submission from AstraZeneca and Oxford University for safety and efficacy since October, and announced their approval this morning.
“AstraZeneca COVID-19 Vaccine is indicated for active immunization of individuals 18 years of age and older for the prevention of coronavirus disease 2019,” reads their website.
“The efficacy of the vaccine was estimated to be 62.1 per cent. Overall, there are no important safety concerns and the vaccine was well tolerated by participants.”
Canada has secured access to 20 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Earlier this week, Dr. Supriya Sharma, Health Canada’s chief medical adviser, told the House of Commons health committee that the regulator has received all the necessary scientific information from the company but was still looking into questions about labelling and the product monograph — the information disseminated by Health Canada to medical professionals about how and when a vaccine should be administered and in what groups.
Health Canada has approved the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, which are already being rolled out in Canada.
Unlike those two shots, which are based on mRNA technology, the AstraZeneca uses a more conventional viral vector load vaccine technology.
Other countries — notably Australia, the European Union and the United Kingdom — have already authorized AstraZeneca for use in their jurisdictions.
