OTTAWA — The federal government has secured an additional eight million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine coming over the next few months, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Friday, just as Moderna revealed coming shipments will be smaller than promised.
These coming Pfizer shots will be on top of the existing doses Canada has already purchased, and will see four million additional doses arrive in May, two million additional shots in June as well as moving up 400,000 doses from the third quarter into that month, followed by an additional two million more doses being added to the July deliveries.
Prior to this update, Canada was scheduled to receive more than one million doses a week through to the end of May, and starting in June Pfizer had committed to sending closer to two million doses. With the new contract, Canada is now on track to have a total of 24 million doses of the two-shot vaccine between April and June.
After shortages in the winter due to an expansion at Pfizer’s European manufacturing facility, Canada has consistently been receiving the promised shipments from the pharmaceutical giant, something Trudeau thanked them for on Friday.
“More doses arriving sooner means more people getting their vaccines faster,” Trudeau said Friday. This increase though follows on the heels of Procurement Minister Anita Anand confirming that late on Thursday that Moderna informed Canada that the next expected vaccine shipment scheduled for the end of April will be 650,000 doses instead of the more than 1.2 million expected.
Further, Moderna is now saying that up to two million of the total 12.3 million doses promised to come to Canada this quarter “may” be delayed until the third quarter due to a “slower than anticipated ramp-up of their production capacity” that is affecting a number of countries. The government had already signalled that while the delivery was supposed to arrive the week of April 19-25, it could be later, meaning it may be early May before the deliveries make it out to the provinces and territories.
“This news is obviously very disappointing. Our government will however continue to bring vaccines into the country in the face of volatile supply chains,” Anand said Friday.
While Moderna met its first quarter dose commitments and moved its shipment intervals up from every three weeks, a “quality assurance processes backlog” has meant the latest shipments to Canada have been inconsistent. The last Moderna shipment to arrive on time and in full was on March 11.
“We will continue to press Moderna, and all of our other suppliers to do everything possible to respect their delivery targets, and to provide more consistent delivery schedules,” said Anand. The opposition party health and procurement critics expressed frustration Friday with the Moderna delays, and hesitancy over celebrating the additional Pfizer shots until they land.“Although we are glad to hear about this news, we will hold off celebrations until doses are received. This government has a long track record of misleading Canadians and not delivering on promises,” said Conservative MP Pierre Paul-Hus.The Conservatives have tabled a motion to summon Moderna Canada representative Patricia Gauthier to testify at the House of Commons Health Committee to explain the delayed shipments…..
Source: ctvnews.ca
Thursday, April 30, 2026
