CSL mandates Covid-19 vaccines, calls end to political blame games

Biotech giant CSL’s boss Paul Perreault says the politicisation of Covid-19 is not helpful and that vaccination is the only way to return the world to normality.

CLS chairman and CEO Paul Perreault (L) and Dr Brian McNamee says vaccination is the main weapon out of the pandemic. Picture: Nikki Short

CSL chief executive Paul Perreault says the politicisation of Covid-19 has fuelled vaccination hesitancy, as the biotech giant announced mandatory jabs across all its Australian and US sites.

As Merk & Co and Pfizer edge closer to gaining approval for experimental Covid-19 antiviral pills, Mr Perreault says vaccination is still the main weapon in combating the pandemic and political blame games potentially put a handbrake on easing back to normality.

“Vaccines are really good medicine and it‘s the way to help prevent disease. This is what should be done for human health,” Mr Perreault said.

“The problem is it‘s become so political. Every country has made it very political - UK, Australia, US - everybody wants to take a side and blame the other side that’s not involved or was involved or could be involved. ‘it’s like, we’ve got the answer, we would have done it differently’.

“It’s just unhelpful because people really see this is a human health issue, not a political issue.”

At its annual meeting on Tuesday, CSL announced that it would make Covid-19 vaccines compulsory across all its Australian site and it intended to do the same in the US, which is where it sources blood plasma to make its suite of lifesaving medicines.

Its mandatory policy brings it inline with fruit and vegetable cannery, SPC, Qantas, Telstra, BHP and Australia’s second biggest private hospital operator Healthscope.

CSL chairman Brian McNamee said: “These policies – and the net effect of a healthier population – are important in allowing the world to return to prosperity”.

“A full economic recovery is dependent on vaccine uptake. This has been widely recognised: less than a fortnight ago, the Victorian Government issued a directive that all authorised workers must be vaccinated.

“In line with our responsibility to ensure the safety of people in our workplace, we have extended this mandate to all those at our Australian sites, and we intend to do the same at our US operations in keeping with requirements set by the U.S. government.

“I encourage all to continue to reflect the spirit that we have seen come to the fore throughout the pandemic so far; a spirit of working for the collective community for the greater good of society.”

Only a handful of Australian companies have mandated Covid-19 vaccines, with many citing a hesitancy to implement such a policy, citing Australia’s industrial laws and framework. But in the US a range of household names - Microsoft, Walmart, Google, Facebook, Netflix and rideshare giants Uber and Lyft have made Covid-19 jabs compulsory.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has said repeatedly its up to companies, the courts and tribunals to introduce such policies.

The Australian government has leant heavily on CSL during the pandemic, contracting it to produce more than 50 million doses on the AstraZeneca vaccine, which was originally intended to inoculate most of the population.

But advice around AstraZeneca’s jab changed earlier this year after it was linked to rare blood clots, relegating it for use on those over 60, and fuelling vaccine hesitancy.

Dr McNamee, who was CSL’s chief executive from 1990 to 2013, gave a subtle swipe at those who have attacked the AstraZeneca vaccine, which CSL has produced under contract at its Melbourne factories.

“Notwithstanding the perhaps disproportionate criticism that this vaccine’s reputation has experienced, we couldn’t be prouder that the AstraZeneca vaccine has given protection to many millions of Australians, and even more will be sent to support our neighbours in the region,” Dr McNamee said.

“We are pleased to say that the Australian Government and AstraZeneca trusted us as their partners to help the country respond to the emerging crisis through the most effective solution available: vaccination.”

Despite enthusiasm around antiviral Covid-19 drugs, which Merk and its partner Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, have requested accelerated approval for from the US health regulator, the Food and Drug Administration, Mr Perreault said the pills won’t replace vaccination.

“They don’t prevent Covid. My understanding is it’s really a treatment - once you’ve had Covid to prevent the progression of the disease,” Mr Perreault said.

“So I don’t think the preventative aspect is going to drive away vaccinations. Vaccinations still will be in place for quite some time and there’s still a lot of countries around the world that haven’t had access to vaccines yet.

“It doesn‘t really change what we’re doing. We continue to look for opportunities for Covid therapies. We continue to look in our own portfolio. We’ll continue to manufacture the vaccine until we’re done.”

Mr Perreault ruled out CSL resuming development of its own Covid-19 vaccine candidate. It was developing a vaccine with the University of Queensland, but that was aborted late last year after it triggered false HIV positive among trial participants.

“Before Covid, we were pretty busy, and we‘re still really busy with our current portfolio of products.

“There‘s billions of doses being made available from Pfizer and Moderna now. And for us to start off on that campaign for a Covid vaccine, it will take another year or two to develop, if you have the IP.

“The new generation or the second generation with what we have access to, we do have some access to it certainly in Australia for a Covid vaccine, but the need for the Covid vaccine by the time we develop and get it approved is probably not going to be what it is today. So, I’ve stopped R&D programs in the past and we stopped because the commercial viability of the product was not there even though technically, we could do it.”

Mr Perrault was speaking from California - he has spent most of the pandemic in the US - and was hopeful he could return to Australia to oversee the country’s biggest health company directly next year - even throwing in a joke that he hoped his clothes still fitted.

“Personally, I can’t wait to come back to Melbourne to be with our teams. I’m also looking forward to inspecting the progress of our new global headquarters and R&D facility at Elizabeth Street North, and the new Seqirus facility at Tullamarine.”