St. Catharines’ Biolyse Pharma signs deal to manufacture monkeypox vaccines

St. Catharines pharmaceutical company Biolyse Pharma has signed a deal to start manufacturing monkeypox vaccines in Niagara.

Once they get Health Canada’s approval they could produce millions of doses to distribute across the globe.

Biolyse Pharma in St. Catharines and PnuVax in Montreal has signed a deal to team up and manufacture monkeypox vaccines together.

Right now the MVA vaccine is manufactured by Bavarian Nordic. PnuVax says they can start manufacturing the doses immediately once they get Health Canada’s approval but adds that they still need funding which initially could be about $10 million.

According to Health Canada’s website as of Friday, there are just under 1,000 monkeypox cases across the country and just under 500 in Ontario.

To date, Health Canada has distributed over 80,000 vaccines across the country.