Vaccine company headed by a Flinders professor fined for advertising Covid shot

A company whose Covid-19 vaccine research is headed by a Flinders University professor has been slapped with a fine after advertising its product online.

The company whose vaccine research is headed by a Flinders University professor has been fined for advertising its Covid-19 shot online.

Professor Nikolai Petrovsky is the founder and lead researcher at Vaxine Pty Ltd, which was slapped with a $13,200 fine by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) for allegedly breaching the Therapeutic Goods Act by advertising its Covid-19 vaccine on Facebook and YouTube.

The TGA is the federal regulator for therapeutic goods and said the fine had been issued, in part, because Covax-19, which is also known as Spikogen, was still subject to a clinical trial.

In a statement, the TGA said Vaxine Pty Ltd had been issued with an infringement after it “did not adequately address a range of concerns with the social media advertisement communicated earlier by the TGA to the director of Vaxine Pty Ltd by telephone and in writing.”

A company led by Flinders University Professor Nikolai Petrovsky has been fined for advertising a Covid vaccine. Picture Matt Turner.

“Publicly available information about any clinical trial must be factual and balanced and must not promote the use or supply of the therapeutic goods that are the subject of the trial,” the statement said.

Prof Petrovsky last year claimed he faced being sacked from his workplace at Flinders Medical Centre for insisting on only taking his own vaccine – which was not approved in Australia at the time.

Prof Petrovsky launched an online crowd-funding scheme, which has so far raised over $1 million, last year to apply to the TGA for approval of the Covax-19.

The Australian-Iranian Covax-19 was approved for use in the Middle East last year and is yet to be approved in Australia.

Prof Petrovsky and Vaxine Pty Ltd have been contacted for comment.