Australia needs to diversify away from its dependence on the AstraZeneca vaccine

Bianca Ogden supports the call for the federal government to diversify its sources of COVID-19 vaccine.

Overseas experience shows that the countries that are most successful in the vaccine rollout have diversified their sources of supply. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Christian Gilles

Platinum Asset Management’s health care fund manager, Bianca Ogden, has supported the call for the federal government to diversify its sources of COVID-19 vaccine.

A German born virologist turned fund manager, Ms Ogden said that Australia needed to diversify away from its dependence on the AstraZeneca vaccine being manufactured in Australia by ASX listed CSL.

She said there was a concern that some people might not want to be vaccinated with AstraZeneca given concern in Europe about its links to blood clots.

But she said Australia also needed to look more actively for sources of vaccines manufacturing using mRNA technology such as US company Moderna and others.

She said overseas experience had shown those countries which were most successful in the vaccine rollout had diversified their sources of supply.

“We are seeing that countries who spread their bets on vaccines are at an advantage,” she said.

She said that it also needed to start looking to the future to consider what vaccines would be needed over the next few years as boosters and to counter new variants of the virus.

She said that younger people in Australia may become more wary of wanting to get the AstraZeneca vaccine given the issues around incidences of blood clotting in Europe.

“I am sure younger people here in Australia will not be as keen to get AstraZeneca,” she said.

“Even if the blood clot issue is not linked, you have to hedge your bets.”

Ms Ogden said the federal government should step up its orders of mRNA based vaccines for the future use beyond the current initial vaccine rollout.

“I don’t understand why there is no thinking about years to come,” she said.

“It is clear the mRNA vaccines are a future solution, but somehow nothing is being done about it.”

Her comments come amid increasing concern that the federal government’s thinking has been affected by its closeness with ASX listed CSL which has focused on the manufacture of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

AstraZeneca’s Australian based chief executive, Pascal Soriot, was on the CSL board until recently.

Ms Ogden said CSL was only working with AstraZeneca in its vaccines but Japanese pharmaceutical company Takeda was working with US companies Moderna, whose vaccine was based on the mRNA technology, and Novavax, which used a more conventional approach, to make both types of vaccines.

She said British pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline was working with German bio tech company CureVac, which uses mRNA based technology for its vaccines, as well as Novavax.

German pharmaceutical company, Bayer, and French pharmaceutical company, Sanofi, were working with CureVac.

Sanofi was also working on its own vaccine and in collaboration with another US based mRNA company, Translate Bio.

“There are many ways to gain access to mRNA vaccines,” she said.

“Six months ago CSL could have also branched out similar to other pharma companies.”

Ms Ogden also backed comments by former Dow Chemical chief executive Andrew Liveris that the federal government needed to expand its vaccine distribution program beyond GP clinics and consider using community based facilities such as convention centres.

“GPs alone are not enough,” she said.

“They are part of the solution but you need bigger venues. “