Medicago's tobacco ties jeopardize
growth of its COVID shot
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[March 28, 2022]
By Amruta Khandekar and Mrinalika Roy
(Reuters) -Canadian vaccine maker
Medicago's COVID-19 vaccine, approved last month in Canada, is facing
limited growth in the near-term after the World Health Organization said
it would not review the vaccine because the company is partly owned by
U.S.-Swiss tobacco company Philip Morris, health experts say.
The WHO said at a briefing this month and in a follow-up statement to
Reuters that it has not accepted an application for the vaccine because
of its 2005 public health treaty requiring no involvement with any
company that produces or promotes tobacco-based products.
Canada, which has provided millions of dollars in development funding to
the company and has agreed to buy up to 76 million doses, defended its
authorization of the vaccine, saying it needs a domestic
bio-manufacturing industry to prepare for future pandemics.
Health Canada said it believes it is in compliance with the WHO tobacco
treaty.
The WHO tobacco treaty "does not preclude the Government of Canada from
working with Medicago on vaccine development and procurement to ensure
that a ready and effective supply of vaccines is available for its
population," a Health Canada spokesperson told Reuters.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2015/May/02/images/ads/current/guzzardo_lda022609.png)
Experts say a WHO authorization is key because the vaccine can then be
part of the COVAX global vaccine program for low- and middle-income
countries. While much of the developed world has already been
vaccinated, Africa is still in desperate need of vaccines. WHO's
approval can also stand in for countries that do not have their own drug
regulatory agencies.
The company has also pitched the platform as easily adaptable for new
vaccines should there be a next pandemic. It is developing flu vaccines
on the platform as well.
"I think that the WHO standards are going to pose a barrier to the
uptake of the vaccine," said Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease expert
at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.
Medicago would now need to approach European and U.S. regulators as well
as any other individual countries one by one to attain approvals, a more
difficult but not impossible barrier to use, Adalja said.
GLOBAL CUSTOMER BASE
Medicago said it is in discussions with other potential customers
worldwide.
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![](../images/032822PIX/health71.jpg)
A worker puts the Nicotiana benthamiana plants in the infiltration
machine at Medicago greenhouse in Quebec City, August 13, 2014.
REUTERS/Mathieu Belanger/File Photo
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2022/Mar/28/images/ads/current/hartsburggrain_sda_2022.png) The company has started the filing
process for approval of its COVID-19 vaccine with the U.S. Food and
Drug Administration (FDA), Medicago Chief Executive Officer Takashi
Nagao said in an emailed statement.
The company has also started an early-to-mid stage study of the shot
in Japan, and plans to file for regulatory approval in the spring,
Nagao said.
It said it has not received an official communication from the WHO,
but believed the decision was linked to its minority shareholder and
not the safety and efficacy profile of its COVID-19 vaccine.
Swiss-American tobacco giant Philip Morris owns a 21% stake in the
Quebec company. Japan's Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma, a unit of
Mitsubishi Chemical Holding Corp, owns the rest of Medicago.
Canadian health group Quebec Coalition for Tobacco Control this week
called on Canada to demand that Medicago replace Philip Morris as a
stakeholder due to its tobacco business. Philip Morris has had a
stake in the company since 2008.
A Philip Morris spokesperson said that the WHO's position was in
opposition to its own call to accelerate vaccinations around the
world.
"Emergency use authorization of a COVID-19 vaccine has absolutely
nothing to do with tobacco control," the spokesperson said. "WHO
policies should focus on accelerating medical progress and
innovation."
Medicago’s Covifenz is the only authorized COVID-19 vaccine that is
plant-based. To make the vaccine, the company uses nicotiana
benthamiana, a cousin of the tobacco plant, as small bioreactors,
growing non-infectious virus like particles that mimic the
coronavirus. It is given with a boosting compound from British
drugmaker Glaxosmithkline.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2022/Mar/28/images/ads/current/peasley_sda_SFARM_2022.png)
The United States and Europe, which already have several vaccines
cleared for use, may still want Medicago's shot because of its
plant-based technology, which would be useful to create a vaccine
against the next problematic pathogen, according to Prashant Yadav,
lecturer and supply chain expert at Harvard Medical School.
(Reporting by Mrinalika Roy and Amruta Khandekar in Bengaluru;
editing by Caroline Humer and Nick Zieminski in New York)
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