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Dr. Riam Shamma knew the closure of Canada’s border with the United States would make getting samples of his company’s newly developed, potential vaccine for COVID-19 to the U.S. a challenge.

But as his temperature-sensitive shipment to an American testing facility sat at the border for day after day last month, he became increasingly anxious.

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Finally, the cargo made its way through, but by the time Shamma’s U.S. partners opened the box, the ice had melted, the serum spoiled.

“Words don’t convey how devastated we were,” said the CEO of Montreal’s Intellistemtech Technologies. “It sets you back about five to six weeks.”

But it was just one obstacle that he and some other Canadian scientists say the pandemic lockdown has inadvertently put in their way, ironically as many pivot from other research to coronavirus work.