Matthew Herder Profile picture
Director, Health Justice Institute & Prof, @DalMedSchool @SchulichLaw, @RSCTheAcademies College of New Scholars, @CIHR_IRSC Applied #PublicHealth Chair
Mar 30, 2022 14 tweets 4 min read
A worrisome data point re: tech transfer | A decade of experience with the @WHO "Pandemic Influenza Preparedness" (PIP) Framework

Here's the thread. For those who don't recall, the PIP Framework emerged out of an international crisis over Indonesia's decision in late 2006 to stop sharing influenza virus specimens with the rest of the world.

Background here:

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…
Feb 3, 2021 11 tweets 5 min read
This is an accessible primer on the steps involved in, + challenges that need to be overcome in manufacturing mRNA vaccines by @Dereklowe

blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archi…

HT @SarahKarlin As the author notes, converting mRNA + lipids into a well-defined mix of solid nanoparticles is very likely the rate-limiting step.

Very few firms likely have the in-house capacity to accomplish this.
Feb 2, 2021 39 tweets 8 min read
Continuing the theme of transparency, not only in light of our 'Too little, too late' paper but also the ongoing news coverage around secret Covid vax deals, I'd like to surface the backstory behind the Ebola vaccine paper that @JEGanthro + @IP_policy published a year ago. Warning: this will not be a short thread. But by the end, I hope you'll see it as a worthwhile read.
Feb 2, 2021 13 tweets 5 min read
Great to see our 'Transparency too little, too late?' paper published in its final form in @J_Law_Biosci

academic.oup.com/jlb/article/7/…

We argue that @GovCanHealth can + should enhance the transparency of the data behind Covid interventions, including vaccines Specifically, we argue that we need to move away from a 'point-in-time' approach to data disclosure to one in which data is released across the product lifecycle.

To its credit, Health Canada now posts a great deal of info once a product is authorized via this portal...
Dec 8, 2020 13 tweets 4 min read
Having predicted that the PM was about to announce the authorization of one or more Covid vaccines yesterday, I was actually a little relieved when the substance of the announcement focused on the details of the distribution deal with Pfizer.

cbc.ca/news/politics/… Importantly, @JustinTrudeau was very careful to say that distribution will only begin once Health Canada had authorized the vaccine.
Jan 16, 2020 24 tweets 8 min read
‘From Discovery to Delivery’ – our paper detailing who did what + when in developing the recently approved Ebola vaccine known as “rVSV-ZEBOV” / Ervebo published today in @J_Law_Biosci by me @JEGanthro + @IP_policy academic.oup.com/jlb/advance-ar… Accompanying oped published in @statnews statnews.com/2020/01/16/pub…