Good Faith Collaboration with Chinese Biological Research

"Why did Canada stand idly by when CanSino breached the agreement?"

"We could have sued them, basically, which would have put Beijing in a tough spot to explain its obstruction."

"That would have been worth doing for reasons of accountability, even if we concluded the vaccine was not a very good one."

Amir Attaran, law professor, health-policy expert, University of Ottawa

"After some time it became clear CanSiono could not secure the authority to ship the materials to Canada."

"The shipment delays did not constitute a termination of the agreement with cause by CanSino."

National Research Council spokesperson

"The experience of this partnership demonstrates once again that any collaboration with China can be jeopardized by Chinese authorities with malign intent towards Canada."

"It therefore renders all partnerships with China as inherently unreliable. Certainly in this case, Beijing is fully to blame."

"Canadians are learning this hard lesson, and are realizing that we should diversify our collaborations away from China and focus on partnering with countries that follow the rule of law." 

"When I talk to Canadian AI scientists, they often say ‘I have partnered with my Chinese friends, they would never steal from us'. I say ‘yes they would. Unfortunately, that is how China’s system works'."

"This was a surprise to see our commitment to China, in sharing very significant proprietary intellectual property, run into this major blockage. China’s success in vaccines is standing on the back of Canadian researchers and scientists. Over the years we helped China develop its capacity. But China is no longer a reliable partner."

Margaret McCuaig-Johnston, senior fellow, Institute for Science, Society and Policy, University of Ottawa

A medical worker shows the inactivated COVID-19 vaccine candidate developed by SinoPharm at the company's vaccine candidate production plant. Photo: Xinhua

 

In the world of scientific research, scientists the world over have always striven to rise above politics in the interests of sharing and learning from one another and working together for a higher purpose. Since so much of science and research benefits humankind, it makes good sense to separate the political world from that of scientific research and to maintain open communications and research exchange opportunities between various nations' scientists and research projects. 

China's approach is somewhat different; under the Chinese Communist Party, control is everything and there is no avenue of endeavour, including scientific research where the CCP does not intervene. Moreover, China is well known for its penchant for hijacking whatever it can of other nations' discoveries, formulae and production secrets to get a jump-start on its own endeavours in technology and science. Above all, Beijing expects all its citizens, current and former, to be faithful to the aspirations of China and to work on its behalf, whether culturally, socially, politically or through espionage.

Canada's National Research Council signed a "collaborative research agreement" between itself and CanSino Biologics whose CEO had a Canadian connection in attending university in Canada and working for Canadian research facilities before setting out on his own with CanSino. The NRC provided CanSino with a cell line on which to establish its agreed-upon COVID vaccine. The agreement was for CanSino to ship samples of its vaccine to Canada to be tested and if proven successful, to be manufactured in Canada as well.

The Academy of Military Medical Sciences, an arm of China's People's Liberation Army, through an army major general as the lead researcher, co-jointly developed the ensuing vaccine with CanSino. The contract signed between the NRC and CanSino stipulated that neither party would be liable for problems caused by factors beyond their reasonable control.

And though the agreed-upon arrangement was meant to see Canada conducting phase one trials then possibly moving on to two and phase three trials on the vaccine, then to begin producing the vaccine at a National Research Council facility if it was approved by Health Canada, the agreement announced in May of 2020 to have the potential to place Canada up front with a COVID vaccine to inoculate against the SARS-CoV-2 virus, that is not quite how things turned out.

When the vaccine was ready for shipment and a Canadian plane sent to China to pick up the vaccine samples, they were denied by Chinese customs, refusing to permit vaccine samples to be sent to Canada. The event was generally assumed to be another of China's punishing tactics over the arrest in Canada of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou, on an extradition request by the U.S. Department of Justice. The message was clear; the collaboration agreement was dead in the water, leaving Canada to scramble to find other vaccine sources.

Beijing did permit CanSino to provide its vaccine to Russia and Pakistan to fight the coronavirus pandemic there. Trial results from Pakistan rendered the information that the one-dose shot was roughly 66 percent effective in prevention of symptomatic COVID-19; while results from other sources using the China-produced vaccines gave even lower effectiveness rates of 51 percent, barely scraping through the minimum efficacy required for approval.

As for Canadian scientists heeding the warning of standing clear of possible scientific collaborations with their Chinese counterparts; in some areas it has fallen on deaf ears. Two scientists at the Canadian Centre for Vaccinology at Dalhousie University continue to be listed as principal investigators on the CanSino vaccine's phase three trials in other countries.

 

Vaccine Ad5-nCoV is backed by Tianjin-based CanSino Biologics Inc., seen here on Nov. 20, 2018, and the Institute of Biotechnology of the Academy of Military Medical Sciences. CHINA STRINGER NETWORK/Reuters