Granting councils, not Health Canada, should handle future HIV competitions

The federal government's mishandling of a proposed HIV manufacturing facility has prompted a Parliamentary committee to recommend that all future competitions be run by arms-length federal research agencies, such as the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) or the Canada Foundation for Innovation.

The Standing Committee on Health's Oct. 21 report studied the government's decision in February to cancel a proposed $88-million vaccine pilot manufacturing facility to produce experimental vaccines for clinical trials, funded by the Canadian government and the Bill and Belinda Gates Foundation. (R$, March 3, 2010)

The competition was managed by the Canadian HIV Vaccine Initiative (CHVI), led by Health Canada.

The government said none of the applicants had met the pre-established criteria. Its decision was also based on a Gates Foundation report which concluded there is already sufficient vaccine manufacturing capacity in North America.

Witnesses told the committee such due diligence should be done prior to a call for applications, instead of "a year after the applicants had invested a significant amount of time, effort and funds in submitting their bids for the project," the report notes.

process flawed

Applicants criticized the process for delays, a lack of communication and minimal feedback during the application process. They also questioned why the CHVI Secretariat did not conduct a site visit as part of the application process, something that is normally done with large federal grant competitions. Witnesses recommended, and the Health committee agreed, that "future competitions of this nature be conducted by federal agencies that have greater experience in research funding."

The government and the Gates Foundation plan to re-allocate the $88 million for other HIV vaccine initiatives. The Health Committee said preference should be given to: immunology related HIV research, team grants, anti-viral drugs, and the pre-purchasing of vaccine production capacity for HIV vaccine candidates.

R$