Canada has entered a tentative deal with US manufacturer Novovax to have their COVID-19 vaccine candidate manufactured at a facility being built by the National Research Council in Montreal. The protein-based vaccine would need to be independently approved by Health Canada and the facility also approved for vaccine production; this could result in late-2021 manufacturing if all timelines are met. Canada has purchased 52 million doses of Novovax’s candidate. Separately, a Vancouver company is in the process of building a facility capable of manufacturing messenger RNA vaccines, an emerging platform that has produced some of the most successful early COVID-19 vaccines. It is expected to be operational in March 2023.