The complainant alleged that Health Canada had improperly withheld information under paragraphs 20(1)(b) (confidential third-party financial, commercial, scientific or technical information) and 20(1)(c) (financial impact on a third party) of the Access to Information Act. This wasin response to an access request for two versions of a non-clinical overview of the Novavax SARS CoV-2 rS vaccine. This complaint falls within paragraph 30(1)(a) of the Act.

Paragraph 20(1)(b) was applied to withhold two versions of a non-clinical overview of Novavax’s COVID-19 Vaccine which had been supplied to Heath Canada for the purpose of seeking Canadian marketing authorization.

The OIC is satisfied that the information qualifies for exemption as it is confidential third-party financial, commercial, scientific or technical information. Furthermore, the OIC concludes that the circumstances set out in subsections 20(5) and 20(6), which would require Health Canada to reasonably exercise its discretion to decide whether to release the information, did not exist when Health Canada responded to the access request.

The complaint is not well founded.