Bill Gates’ $10b boost to Melbourne-led vaccine trial
A Melbourne-led trial testing the BCG vaccine as a potential weapon against coronavirus will be expanded internationally after a $10 million boost from Bill Gates.
HS Coronavirus News
Don't miss out on the headlines from HS Coronavirus News. Followed categories will be added to My News.
A lifesaving coronavirus treatment that uses the plasma of recovered COVID-19 patients will be manufactured in Victoria, while billionaire Bill Gates has pledged $10 million to another Melbourne-led trial.
People who have had the disease are being asked to donate plasma for the treatment, called COVID-19 Immunoglobulin, which experts hope can ease symptoms in severe cases before patients need ventilation.
An estimated 800 plasma donations from recovered patients will be needed to treat up to 100 sick people in a trial.
Plasma donations will be collected by the Red Cross Lifeblood, then made into the medical product at a facility in Broadmeadows.
Lifeblood chief executive Shelly Park called for potential donors to contact the service.
“We are very proud to be part of this initiative which may ultimately help treat patients suffering from this terrible disease,” she said.
Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt, who will announce the project on Wednesday, said it was “a great example of Australians helping Australians”.
Bill Gates on Tuesday announced a $10 million donation to expand a Melbourne-led trial of the BCG vaccine to healthcare workers Australia, Spain and the Netherlands.
The Murdoch Children’s Research Institute’s BRACE trial will test whether the century-old tuberculosis vaccine can prevent severe COVID-19 cases and protect hospital workers. More than 2500 Australian hospital workers will be involved.
After initially beginning the trial in Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital on March 27, the MCRI’s Professor Nigel Curtis has been in talks with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation about its wider global use.
“This funding will be crucial to quickly enable us to expand the BRACE trial to Sydney in Australia and the Netherlands and Spain internationally,” Prof Curtis said.
The vaccine — Bacillus Calmette-Guerin or BCG — was originally developed to fight tuberculosis but phased out of Australian immunisation programs in the 1980s because TB was virtually eradicated.
The institute has previously investigated whether the BCG could reduce food allergies, asthma, eczema and hayfever, but will now focus on whether it could be used as a temporary guard against the novel coronavirus until a more precise vaccine can be developed.
The Gates’s cash injection follows $700,000 from Sarah and Lachlan Murdoch, $400,000 from the Royal Children’s Hospital Foundation and $1.5 million from the Minderoo Foundation.
“These sorts of trials normally take around eight to 12 months to start, but with the early support of philanthropy, we were able to start in record time within three weeks,” Prof Curtis said.
Victoria recorded another 17 coronavirus cases on Tuesday, taking the state’s total to 1423.
Eleven of the new cases were linked to the outbreak at Cedar Meats in Melbourne’s west, a cluster now having infected at least 45 people.
Meanwhile, doctors fear a tsunami of illness could overwhelm the health system after COVID-19 with more than 60,000 patients a day now missing out on medical tests.
The dramatic drop has prompted 15 doctors’ groups, pharmaceutical and pathology companies and patient groups to form a new body, Continuity of Care Collaboration, urging sick Australians to overcome their fear of COVID-19 and speak to their doctors.
The Continuity of Care Collaboration is particularly concerned that patients with aggressive cancers may die if they wait months for treatment, and stroke victims who don’t present in the first four hours for clot-busting drugs will be more severely disabled.
There has been a 30-50 per cent drop in GP visits, 40 per cent drop in pathology testing, 30 per cent drop in referrals of cancer patients and a 30 per cent drop in ambulance calls for chest pain.
Royal Australian College of General Practitioners president Dr Harry Nespolon said: “The last thing we want is people neglecting their health.”
John Crothers, CEO of Pathology Awareness Australia, said he was alarmed at the number of people not seeking medical advice and maintaining regular health routines.
“A few weeks ago, we identified that laboratory testing had declined by 40 per cent, resulting in 60,000 patients not getting their regular pathology or diagnostic testing,” he said
READ MORE
WHY THOUSANDS ARE STRUGGLING TO DOWNLOAD APP
VACCINE WARNING AS AUSTRALIA JOINS $12B FIGHT