OTTAWA (Reuters) – Pfizer Inc will next week start supplying Canada with COVID-19 vaccine made in its U.S. plant, a senior official said on Friday, making it the second country to receive doses from the Kalamazoo, Michigan facility.
Reuters reported on Thursday that Pfizer had started shipping vaccines made at the plant to Mexico, the first time it has delivered abroad from U.S. facilities after a Trump-era restriction on dose exports expired at the end of March.
“I can confirm that as of May 3, the Canadian supply of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine will come from its manufacturing site in Kalamazoo,” said federal Procurement Minister Anita Anand.
“We expect to remain on the same delivery schedule, with 2 million doses expected each week in May, starting next week, and 2.4 million doses each week in June,” she told a briefing.
Canada has deals with Pfizer for up to 76 million doses. Previous Canadian shipments from Pfizer and German partner BioNTech SE had come from Pfizer’s main European plant in Belgium.
(Reporting by David Ljunggren; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)