02-01-2021, 02:52 PM
(01-31-2021, 11:55 PM)taylortbb Wrote:(01-31-2021, 11:33 PM)jeffster Wrote: So apparently there is a Made in Canada solution. However, the business is having a hard time getting the attention of the government.
https://globalnews.ca/news/7608677/coron...rapeutics/
The Providence Therapeutics story makes great headlines, but your anti-Calgary conspiracy theories are frankly pure bullshit.
Provide Therapeutics is a tiny startup, as in ~30 employees tiny. Could they have made a Covid-19 vaccine? Maybe, they do have some experience with mRNA tech, but their ability to scale manufacturing is really questionable. (...)
No amount of money would make a Providence Therapeutics vaccine ready for mass distribution in 2021. They're just starting phase 1 trials now, and building a new mRNA manufacturing facility isn't exactly easy. I definitely think we should invest in domestic mRNA vaccine capability, and maybe Providence Therapeutics is a good way to do so, but that's a "next pandemic" sort of issue.
Correct. Running through phase 1, 2 and 3 trials will take 6-9 months minimum, even at the current accelerated pace, and then the approval process. Moderna and BioNTech phase 3 trials went very quickly because they were able to recruit tens of thousands of people (can Providence?) and because there have been huge numbers of new cases in the US. This may no longer be the case by the time Providence gets to phase 3, and that will mean having to run the trials for a longer time.
Hopefully they are successful and build domestic mRNA capability for us. But they would not have been able to do anything to resolve our current vaccine shortfall.