Feds complete financing for InterVac

The federal government is stepping up to the plate with an additional $24 million to complete the funding requirements for the Univ of Saskatchewan’s $61.8-million International Vaccine Centre (InterVac). Prime minister Paul Martin visited the U of S campus earlier this month to announce the latest funding for the project, which will be built next to the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization (VIDO) and completed by 2009.

InterVac was approved for financing last year by the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI), which awarded $19.3 million conditional upon the U of S securing the remaining $42.5 million. The province will announce shortly a match of the CFI’s contribution, leaving roughly $24 million outstanding. Because the CFI and provincial contributions fall short of the standard 40% of project costs, the federal government has agreed to fill the gap, with $5 million from Western Economic Diversification’s (WD) core budget and $19 million from other federal sources.

“We have the flexibility to support matching contributions to things like CFI,” says Keith Fernandez, WD’s DG policy advocacy and strategic services for WD. “The money will be spread out over the full construction phase.”

InterVac’s top-up funding will give VIDO a Level 3 laboratory that can handle all sizes of mammals — human and animal — including vaccine trials which currently must be conducted in the US. The facility will also enable VIDO researchers to better collaborate with their Canadian and international colleagues.

“A Level 3 laboratory will open up horizons for a lot of things that we do,” says Dr Andrew Potter, VIDO’s director of research. “From a scientific perspective, this funding removes a lot of questions about the future. Level 2 is the current practice but it will not be allowed in a few years.”

In addition to InterVac’s unique capabilities, it is also ideally situated to meet with demand for research into infectious diseases. The province had 60% of Canada’s confirmed and probably cases of West Nile virus. And in 1999, Saskatchewan’s Aboriginal population accounted for 87% of all tuberculosis cases in the country.

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