Following the setbacks of the Covifenz vaccine, PMI is ousted from Medicago

In order to regain the favor of the World Health Organization (WHO) for the anti-COVID vaccine Covifenz, Mitsubishi had to buy all of Philip Morris International's (PMI) shares in the Medicago laboratory. Health organizations welcome this situation and call for vigilance on tobacco industry investments.

The setbacks have been piling up for the Medicago laboratory around its anti-COVID vaccine Covifenz. Developed from a plant of the tobacco family, Nicotiana benthamiana, this vaccine was initially considered effective at only 71 %, significantly less than those of competitors, and was only considered as a second-line treatment. Medicago then, in March 2022, was refused of the World Health Organization (WHO) to appear on the list of approved vaccines, on the grounds of the acquisition of a 21,130 stake in its capital by Philip Morris International (PMI).

Although supported by the federal government, which had pre-ordered 76 million doses of the vaccine, and by the Quebec government, which was thinking of hosting one of the production sites in Quebec, Medicago has since been unable to deliver any of the doses planned and announced for May 2022, following production problems at its North Carolina site. Multiple delays have also pushed back the commissioning of the Quebec production site to an uncertain date.

A risky investment by the Canadian government

To regain the trust of the WHO and try to save its Covifenz vaccine, Medicago had to separate from its cumbersome shareholder, from whom it had announced its distancing in July 2020. PMI's shares were therefore bought by Mitsubishi Tanabe, Medicago's parent company, which now controls this laboratory at 100 %. The Quebec government has indicated that it does not plan to take any stake in the laboratory, as was the case a time consideredMedicago's survival now depends on its ability to overcome its production difficulties, both in the United States and in Quebec.

Federal Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos said he was disappointed by the hopes and the 173 million Canadian dollars (120 million euros) invested in Medicago. He reaffirmed that neither the company nor the federal government imagined possible complications with the WHO, while PMI's presence in the capital was well known.

"It was a long-standing environment that saw itself as isolated, like a fortress. They were doing their own thing...", however, Mr. Duclos recognizes regarding the pharmaceutical industry, "Like many other business communities, they are realizing that they also have social, environmental and governance responsibilities that go beyond their pure economic contribution."[1]. Epidemiologist Gaston De Serres believes, on the contrary, that the directors of Medicago "pretended to be surprised, but they were aware that there was a problem with the WHO".

An attack on the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control

Local anti-smoking stakeholders had alerted the federal government in the fall of 2020, at the time of the investment in Medicago, recalling Canada's commitments to the international treaty of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (CCLAT). Article 5.3 of the FCTC specifies that public health policies must be protected from any influence of the tobacco industry, which also applies to participation in conferences or companies in the health sector.

“Tobacco companies, vaccines and governments do not mix and we applaud the expulsion of Philip Morris from the Medicago collaboration.”, rejoiced Les Hagen, executive director of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH Canada), for whom "Tobacco companies are desperately trying to whitewash their terrible public image by investing in the health sector"[2]. PMI's recent investments in the pharmaceutical sector (Fertin Pharma, OtiTopic, Vectura) and the numerous Crisis exploitations linked to COVID-19 by tobacco manufacturers indeed confirms the attempt to reposition cigarette manufacturers.

For Daniel Dorado, director of Corporate Accountability's tobacco campaign, "Canada is considered a world leader in tobacco control. If Canada is vulnerable to tobacco industry interference, so are many other countries. "The lesson learned by the Canadian government should encourage other political leaders to take greater account of the obligations of the FCTC treaty.

Keywords: Medicago, vaccine, PMI, Covifenz, Mistubishi Tanabe, Canada, Quebec

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