New blow to rollout as Novavax Covid-19 vaccine hits supply hiccup

Australia’s vaccine rollout has been dealt another blow as Novavax confirms manufacturing supply shortages.

The Novavax vaccine. Picture: AFP

Australia’s vaccine rollout has been dealt another blow as Novavax confirms manufacturing supply shortages mean it will not meet its target to produce 150 million vaccine doses by mid-year.

The company now says it will not reach full manufacturing capacity until well into the third quarter of this year as it struggles to source bioreactor bags and other raw supplies needed for manufacturing.

Australia has a pre-purchase agreement for 51 million doses of Novavax. The delay means the Federal government will be wholly reliant on Pfizer as it begins to vaccinate the under-50s from mid-year.

“We said during our earnings call that we expect all capacity being online by around mid-year. We’re continuing to refine that timing as we get closer, which now leads us to think we’re online/at full capacity by Q3,” Novavax communications director Amy Speak said.

“There are some supply shortages that come and go that have contributed to the revision in timing,” she said. “These have included things like the bioreactor bags and filters.”

Novavax’s clinical trials in the US are ongoing, but interim data has indicated that the protein-based vaccine has a 95.6 per cent efficacy against the original COVID-19 strain and an 85 per cent efficacy against the UK strain.

The delay in Novavax’s manufacturing capacity comes as the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration announced a suspension in administration of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine in the US after reported cases of blood clots with low platelets occurred in six women aged between 18 and 48.

The women all experienced the brain clotting syndrome known as cerebral venous sinus thrombosis, which has been seen in rare cases in Europe and the UK associated with the AstraZeneca vaccine.

More than 6.8 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine have been administered so far in the US, meaning the blood clot cases have occurred at the rate of less than one in a million.

The US pause prompted the pharmaceutical giant to delay the European rollout of its vaccine.

“We have been working closely with medical experts and health authorities, and we strongly support the open communication of this information to healthcare professionals and the public,” Johnson & Johnson said.

Both the Johnson & Johnson and the AstraZeneca vaccines use an adenovirus to transport genetic material into the body to induce the body to make the coronavirus’s spike protein.

US officials said they believed there may be something about the adenovirus technology that was triggering the rare cases of blood clots.

One of the leading scientists studying the blood clotting syndrome, Andreas Greinacher from the University of Greifswald in Germany, said a mouse study has suggested that DNA material that is contained within the adenovirus can bind to a platelet factor in the blood that triggers the body to make antibodies to the vaccine which promote blood clots.

New Scientist reported that Professor Greinacher believed this may be why the blood clotting syndrome has only been seen in DNA-containing adenovirus-based vaccines.