COVID-19 vaccine doses could arrive in Canada early in 2021: minister

Canada's minister of procurement said the country is "aggressively negotiating" with drugmakers on delivery schedules for potential COVID-19 vaccines, adding that shipments would begin early in 2021 under existing deals, as reported in Yahoo!Finance.

The exact timing of deliveries depends on the result of clinical trials, regulatory approvals and manufacturing capacity, Anita Anand said, but should approvals come sooner than expected, the government will negotiate earlier deliveries.

"Make no mistake, suppliers are reserving manufacturing capacity to supply doses to Canada based on those aggressively negotiated delivery schedules," Anand added.

Canada has agreements with Moderna, Pfizer, Novavax and Johnson & Johnson.

Anand did not say which company was scheduled to deliver first, but the vaccine candidates from Pfizer and Moderna are among the most advanced, the news source said.