UQ vaccine and the crusaders behind it still hailed by experts as a success

The University of Queensland’s vaccine is still being hailed a scientific success, despite the heartbreaking decision to scrap it based on a handful of false positive HIV tests.

Scientists at the University of Queensland are devastated their painstaking work won’t result in a homegrown COVID-19 vaccine - but its still being hailed a scientific success.

While the jab was safe, the university and manufacturer CSL revealed the shock finding early Friday that some trial volunteers returned false positive HIV tests, and a decision was made to scrap the vaccine altogether to ensure public confidence.

The science community has rallied behind the gutted UQ team, imploring the public not to see it as a failure, but a reason why the process deserves to be trusted.

“This story will be seen as a failure by many but it is a live demonstration of how science works at its best,” Professor David Tscharke, Head of Immunology and Infectious Diseases at The Australian National University said.

“The quality of the science has not been diminished but the willingness to accept the data and interpret accurately and the integrity in reporting show the team to be our very best.”

While 90 per cent of vaccines never make it to market, the head of UQ’s candidate vaccine team, Prof Paul Young, admitted his scientists were gutted by the decision to stop the trials.

“We are devastated at what has happened and for the last 11 months our team and their families have lived and breathed the vaccine. This news has been challenging but that is science and we will pick ourselves up and get back to work,” he said.

Dr Daniel Watterson, Christina Henderson, Professor Paul Young, Dr Keith Chappell, Professor Trent Munro from University of Queensland Picture: University of Queensland

Although the team’s molecular clamp technology returned a robust immune response to coronavirus in 216 trial recipients in the Phase 1 stage and the jab was safe, some of the volunteers returned a false positive HIV test.

Those in the trial were warned of the possibility that fragments of a protein derived from HIV could produce antibodies.

The HIV protein fragment was used to clamp the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19. Although there was no possibility the participants could acquire HIV, the vaccine had the potential to interfere with existing HIV testing - which was likely to impact public confidence.

Associate Professor Sanjaya Senanayake, a specialist in Infectious Diseases and Associate Professor of Medicine at The Australian National University said the team was right to halt the trial.

“Given that millions of people in Australia and around the world might have received the vaccine, this could have led to confusion and anxiety as people tested positive to HIV without actually having the infection,” she said.

But UQ’s molecular clamp is a revolutionary invention and a good vaccine platform which can adapt to rapidly emerging diseases, and the technology will continue to be funded to allow further development.

Dr Diego Silva from Sydney Health Ethics in the University of Sydney School of Public Health said the researchers did the right thing by prioritising the safety of participants and the soundness of science by stopping when they did.

“Although it might seem counter-intuitive, from a research ethics viewpoint, this is a success,” he said.

“Science cannot be all about producing positive results. Negative results will and must occur.

“Negative results are also as important as success in science since they, too form part of the evidence base for future research.”

Prof Young has 40 years experience in virology. He has always maintained that safety was the most important element to the team’s work.

He also has been adamant that his team was not in a race against other vaccine candidates but a race against time, a race against the killer virus.