By Paul Vieira


Canada said Friday it has recovered tens of millions it provided to a Quebec-based Covid-19 vaccine maker after its owner, Japan's Mitsubishi Chemical Group, shut down the biotech firm earlier in the year.

Canada said Mitsubishi agreed to pay back 40 million Canadian dollars, or the equivalent of $29 million, of the C$173 million in financing originally provided in October, 2020 to build a vaccine production factory. Further, Mitsubishi agreed to transfer research-and-development assets and intellectual property formerly belonging to Medicago to a new Canadian company in Quebec City, named Aramis Biotechnologies.

Canada's Industry Minister, Francois-Philippe Champagne, said Aramis will be run by former Medicago managers. A separate agreement has been reached to secure Aramis's ownership of the assets.

The agreement "presents a unique opportunity to capitalize on the original government investment in Medicago and retain key domestic assets within the Canadian ecosystem," Champagne said in a statement.

Back in 2020, Canada provided C$173 million to Mitsubishi-owned Medicago to support Canada's response to the Covid-19 pandemic, and signed a deal to acquire up to 76 million doses of Medicago's Covid-19 vaccine.

Medicago's vaccine received Canadian regulatory approval in 2022, but the World Health Organization rejected its use due to corporate ties with tobacco company Philip Morris International, which held a minority stake. Mitsubishi shut down Medicago this past February, citing changes in the Covid-19 vaccine market.


Write to Paul Vieira at paul.vieira@wsj.com


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

12-08-23 1108ET