Coronavirus: green light for vaccine production

AstraZeneca is so confident in the efficacy of its COVID-19 vaccine that it will begin production in Australia from next week, Scott Morrison has revealed.

Scott Morrison at the Scientia clinic in Sydney. Picture: Getty Images

AstraZeneca is so confident in the efficacy of its COVID-19 vaccine that it will begin production in Australia from next week, Scott Morrison has revealed.

It comes as the nation secured access to two extra potential COVID-19 vaccines­ as part of a new $1.5bn deal, doubling the number of drug candidates Australians have access to.

The Prime Minister said on Thursday that the AstraZeneca production would take some months before it was distributed to Australians because the drug still needed to undergo strict testing.

“Of course, the AstraZeneca vaccine also has to meet TGA ­approval, it also has to go through the final stage trials, all of those things,” he said. “But we’re making sure that should these ­approvals be given, that we’ll be able to move as quickly as possible and the arrangement we ­already have with AstraZeneca enables advance shipments of those also to be in Australia.”

Under international agreements struck this week, Australia would be given access to up to 40 million doses of a drug prod­uced by US biotech company Nova­vax, as well as 10 million doses of an alternative drug produced by Pfizer and BioNTech.

The deal brings Australia’s total spending on vaccines to more than $3.2bn and builds on the existing access to 33.8 million doses of the protein-based candidate developed­ by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford.

It has also secured 51 million doses of a local candidate produced by the University of Queensland and Australian manufacturer CSL (Seqirus).

Last month’s budget, which forecast real GDP growth of 4.25 per cent next year, assumed a “population-wide Australian COVID­-­19 vaccination to be fully in place by late 2021” and the progressi­ve lifting of border restrict­ions and movement bans.

Health Minister Greg Hunt said Australia had the best vaccine distribution in the world and was still on track to begin rolling-out inoculations next year.

“Suppliers that have a proven track record in vaccine logistics and distribution or booking systems, tracking and reporting of vaccines are being invited to participate in this process by limited tender,” he said.