IVI and Canada
Member State Relations
On July 18, 2024, the Honorable Mélanie Joly, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada, visited IVI Headquarters in Seoul to deliver a letter of intent to join IVI as a Party to the IVI Establishment Agreement. The IVI Board of Trustees approved Canada’s accession to IVI.
On 25 March 2026, Canada deposited an Instrument of Accession to the IVI Establishment Agreement with the United Nations.
Canadian Leadership at IVI
Noni MacDonald, FRCPC, Department of Pediatrics, Dalhousie University (2021)
Galit Alter, Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School (2016-2020)
Elwyn Griffiths, Director General of the Biologics and Genetic Therapies Directorate, Health Canada (2001-2006)
Ongoing Collaboration
Partnerships with VIDO-InterVAC at the University of Saskatchewan
In October 2019, during an official visit to IVI Headquarters by the Honorable Scott Moe, Premier of Saskatchewan, IVI and the University of Saskatchewan’s (USask) VIDO-InterVac, a global leader in infectious disease research and vaccine development, exchanged a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to establish future partnership in vaccine research and capacity-building. Through this MOU, IVI and VIDO-InterVAC are taking steps to exchange knowledge and opportunities for the shared mission of advancing vaccines.
Following the outbreak of the COVID-19 Pandemic, IVI and VIDO-InterVAC, have been partnering on a $180,000 project that will look at virus replication, immune responses, and the effect of antivirals and other medicines to combat COVID-19. The funding for the initiative comes from the USask International Blueprint’s Global Innovation Fund and VIDO-InterVac.
Full Value of Vaccines Assessment (FVVA) for iNTS vaccines
In 2021, IVI began work on a FVVA for iNTS vaccines in collaboration with the WHO, Shift Health, and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM). The iNTS FVVA will help stakeholders, investors, and policymakers understand the value of investment in iNTS vaccine development and use.
In 2023, Following discussions with the Research Steering Group (including the Wellcome Trust Representative), it was agreed to shift the scope of project to the development of a trivalent vaccine composed of typhoid conjugate vaccine (S. Typhi) and bivalent iNTS vaccine (S. Typhimurium and S. Enteritidis). The Preferred Product Characteristics (PPC) and R&D roadmap as well as Business Case and Investment Case would reflect this change.
Also in 2023, Shift Health made significant process on the completion of the business case report; IVI and LSHTM completed their respective literature reviews; and the consortium launched their website: https://inovvel.org/. In 2010, of an estimated 3.4 million global cases of iNTS disease, 1.9 million were estimated to have occurred in sub–Saharan Africa. iNTS is the leading cause of community-acquired bacteremia in adults and the second most common pathogen identified in African children.
Strep A Vaccine Global Consortium (SAVAC)
In 2021, with Funding from the Wellcome Trust, IVI and Canada’s Shift Health established a partnership with the World Health Organization (WHO), the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, the GSK Vaccines Institute for Global Health (GVGH), and Europe’s Vacc-iNTS, to develop a Full Value of Vaccine Assessment (FVVA) for iNTS vaccines.
The Strep A Vaccine Global Consortium (SAVAC), established in 2019 by IVI to facilitate the development of Group A Streptococcus (GAS) vaccines, is building a Full Value of Vaccine Assessment (FVVA) for GAS vaccines, increasing the awareness of GAS vaccine development, and broadly identifying and filling R&D gaps for GAS vaccines, including advocacy, epidemiology/burden, pipeline, correlates, and funding. Canada’s Shift Health is a key partner in SAVAC and is developing the business case for GAS vaccines.
In November 2023, SAVAC 2.0 was launched, focusing on three workstreams: 1) preparing for vaccine clinical trials, which includes the establishment of a sentinel site network and conducting a data linkage study; 2) preparing industry stakeholders by engaging with developers and manufacturers; and 3) preparing non-industry stakeholders such as WHO and country-level policymakers to facilitate eventual vaccine introduction.
Previously, IVI and Shift Health worked on HIV vaccine development.
Partnerships with Sumagen
IVI is working with Canada’s Sumagen on a rVSV-based COVID-19 vaccine candidate. IVI is providing assistance with pre-clinical studies of the Sumagen COVID-19 vaccine.
Previously, IVI and Sumagen worked together on the development of a Zika vaccine candidate.