Securities and Exchange Commission

By Dan Laxer
The Suburban

BMC, a TMR-based vaccine manufacturer, has cancelled a contract with American biotech firm Novavax almost five years to the day since the Covid-19 shutdowns.

Novavax filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, saying Montreal’s Biologics Manufacturing Centre cancelled the deal – an Advanced Purchase Agreement – on March 7.

In February, 2021, the Canadian government made a deal with Novavax to manufacture a Covid-19 vaccine in Montreal. It was to be the first company to make a Covid vaccine in Canada. The vaccine, Nuvaxovid, was to be made with ingredients produced at BMC. The multi-million-dollar deal was announced, at the time, by Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne. Production was supposed to start toward the end of 2021, with about two million doses of the vaccine to be produced every month.

However, the vaccine was never produced. At least not at BMC. Neither Canada nor Quebec had any Nuvaxovid for the 2024-25 Covid season. Admittedly there was little need for it by that time.

Still, BMC cited a missed deadline of December 31, 2024 for the cancellation. There were hints last fall of the possible cancellation, given that production was three years behind schedule. Novavax was required to get regulatory approval for the Montreal-made vaccine before the end of 2024, or the deal would be quashed.

That deadline was part of a 2023 amendment to the 2021 agreement, which also stated that Novavax would provide extra preparedness services to the government.

However, the Canadian government is only getting back $28 million, while Novavax keeps the $556 million it was paid for future doses of the vaccine.

BMC did not respond to requests for comment from The Suburban by press time. n