Australia ‘can’t delay on Covid booster orders’, says Moderna

Moderna has urged Australia not to delay in signing a deal to clinch the nation’s booster vaccine supplies for next year or risk holdups.

A health worker prepares a vial of the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine. Picture: AFP

Moderna has urged Australia not to delay in signing a deal to clinch the nation’s booster vaccine supplies for next year or risk holdups in the fresh vaccines arriving in the country.

The biopharma’s chief executive Stephane Bancel says Australia will need to place its order for bivalent booster vaccines soon if supply is going to be able to be guaranteed for 2023.

“Now’s a good time,” Mr Bancel said. “We are in the early stage of discussions. We already have some countries that have orders for 2023 like the UK, but the US has not ordered anything for 2023. So I don’t think Australia is in a bad spot.

“I think it’s important to review the portfolio so that taxpayers’ money is used well. We are totally able to supply products for next year for Australia if those discussions are finalised in good manner.”

The federal government this week released the results of a review of vaccine procurement conducted by Jane Halton, which found that the country has an oversupply of the Novavax shot but needs to move to purchase more Moderna.

The government has secured a limited supply for this year of Moderna’s new bivalent vaccine that has been specifically formulated against Omicron.

Federal health minister Mark Butler said next year’s vaccines was something “we’ll need to look at quite urgently”.

But Australia will now have to make the decision as to whether it orders more of that vaccine – known as mRNA-1273.214 and formulated against the BA.1 subvariant – or whether we order the newer bivalent vaccine that targets BA.5, given BA.1 has been superseded.

The US has been using the BA.5 vaccine, but no human trial results have been published or released concerning using that shot.

Early data from the human clinical trial of the mRNA-1273.214 shot released by Moderna indicated the vaccine boosted neutralising antibody levels in clinical trial participants by 5.4-fold against BA. 4 and BA. 5 above the level of antibodies participants had after ­initial vaccination and one booster shot.

That has given Mr Bancel confidence that if countries choose to purchase that vaccine for next year, they will be well protected against BA.5 but the company also believes that the mRNA-1273.214 is likely to offer strong protection against new strains that may emerge.

“I believe that the BA.1 vaccine protects extremely well against BA.5,” Mr Bancel said. “I will give my wife or my kids or my parents the BA.1 vaccine any day of the week.”

However, when making procurement decisions the federal government would also be mindful that new variants may emerge by the time people need boosters next year, and so we may need supplies of an ever newer variant-specific mRNA vaccine.

Australia is lagging behind the rest of the world on fourth shots, with only 40 per cent of the population having had two boosters.

Ms Halton said in her review this week there is “significant confusion” among the public over advice on booster shots and ongoing vaccination.

Current advice is that for people who contracted Omicron this year, they should consider having a fourth shot three months after they had Covid-19.