OTTAWA—Innovation Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne says Canada’s biomanufacturing sector has rebounded beyond his initial expectations in the last several months, as a Canadian drug maker stands poised to bring positive results from the first plant-based COVID-19 vaccine to Health Canada. At the outset of the pandemic, Canada’s lack of biomanufacturing capability came into sharp focus, and the incapacity to produce COVID-19 vaccines domestically caused some major initial stumbles in the country’s early vaccine rollout. Champagne says his vision was to rebuild the sector based on the different families of vaccines, as well as improve the capacity for contract manufacturers in Canada. “This is beyond my expectations,” Champagne said in an interview Monday. The government spent billions of dollars in an attempt to rebuild Canada’s flagging biomanufacturing capabilities as quickly as possible, after decades of decline. Canadian company Medicago benefited from its largest investment, $173 million, to support the development of a …