TGA to advise on China, India-made vaccines later this week

Scott Morrison is expected to soon hear whether or not Australia should recognise certain internationally-made vaccines.

as Australia looks to reopen to the world, Scott Morrison will this week be handed advice on whether the nation should recognise vaccines made in China and India.

Currently, the Therapeutic Goods Administration only recognises vaccines made in Europe, the US and Australia: Pfizer, Johnson and Johnson, Moderna and AstraZeneca.

TGA boss Professor John Skerritt told NCA Newswire the regulator had done a lot of work to evaluate vaccines made elsewhere, but in some cases, information has been scarce.

A healthcare worker holds a box of Sinovac vaccines at a health centre in Cambodia. Picture: Cindy Liu/Getty Images

“One of the biggest challenges is, in general, there's not enough or not as much … information out there in the medical literature, and in publicly available reports on the Indian and Chinese vaccines compared with, say, the ones that Europe, North America, Australia have all approved,” he said.

“But we're also going to those governments and trying to get information ... that’s also available, but isn’t public on those vaccines.”

Professor Skerritt said he estimated the advice would be updated continuously as new information came to hand.

Sinovac and Sinopharm, both developed by Chinese pharmaceutical companies, are currently not approved by the TGA.

Concerns around the Sinovac were raised after a number of fully vaccinated health workers across Indonesia and Thailand died following Covid-19 infection.

A healthcare worker in Thailand receiving the Sinovac vaccine. (Photo by Tuwaedaniya Meringing/AFP

A Thai study later found the antibodies in those fully vaccinated with Sinovac declined by half every 40 days.

There is little data about its effectiveness against the Delta variant.

In December, 500 students from around the world will be granted entry to Australia on two chartered flights. But to be eligible for the program, students must be fully vaccinated with a jab approved by the TGA.

Currently those who have been vaccinated with Sinovac or Sinopharm cannot have their vaccinations added to the Australian Immunisation Register.