Alberta government $81.2M commitment funds four COVID-19 vaccine proposals

The Alberta government is providing up to $81.2 million to fund four proposals for vaccine development and manufacturing. The commitment will help in the fight against COVID-19 and future infectious disease outbreaks while growing Alberta’s pharmaceutical and life sciences sector.

After an independent third-party review, the government selected four proposals: University of Alberta, Entos Pharmaceuticals, Applied Pharmaceutical Innovation, and Northern RNA.

Alberta’s government is also committing to fund 10 per cent of the following proposals, contingent on the companies receiving financial support from the federal government or private funding. Alberta will provide:

$15.5 million to Entos Pharmaceuticals to establish a commercial manufacturing facility in Edmonton.

$5.6 million to Applied Pharmaceutical Innovation to build an integrated research, commercialization, and manufacturing cluster to ensure security of supply of critical medicines at commercial volumes.

$5 million to Northern RNA help build the RNA ecosystem in Alberta.

John Lewis, founder and CEO, Entos Pharmaceuticals.

“By providing funding for Entos’ planned commercial manufacturing facility in Edmonton, the Alberta government is backing an innovative project that will manufacture vaccines,” says John Lewis, founder and CEO, Entos Pharmaceuticals, “such as our COVID-19 vaccine candidate currently in Phase 2 trials — as well as future genetic medicines.

“We’re grateful to the provincial government for supporting homegrown innovation that can ensure safety and well-being for Albertans, Canadians, and society overall.”

According to Andrew MacIsaac, CEO, Applied Pharmaceutical Innovation, “we are thrilled to receive funding from the Government of Alberta to establish pharmaceutical manufacturing capacity in our province.

“This investment will be used to fund part of the Canadian Critical Drug Initiative (CCDI), the first-of-its-kind integrated research, commercialization and manufacturing cluster that will produce critical drugs needed urgently by Canadians. “Importantly, this support unlocks a critical talent pipeline for life science graduates in Canada. We see this as being a key component of our ability to create meaningful jobs, ensure that we have the critical capacity to address pandemics, and play an ever-stronger role in a growing sector.”