Two million AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine doses and all Aussie-made by CSL

Two million locally manufactured doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine will be delivered to hospitals and clinics within six weeks.

Here’s one they made earlier … Scott Morrison with a vial at CSL’s Parkville facility on Friday. Picture: Getty Images

Two million locally manufactured doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine will be delivered to hospitals and clinics within six weeks as pharmaceutical company CSL races to complete its first orders.

CSL is moving to 24-hour production in the final stage of the manufacturing process of the COVID-19 vaccine, with the first doses to poured into vials on ­Monday.

Scott Morrison inspected CSL’s facility in Parkville, Melbourne, on Friday, hailing the local manufacturing effort which has seen CSL pivot to producing a viral vector vaccine for the first time.

“We are making it here, right here in Melbourne,” the Prime Minister said. “That is something that few prime ministers and presidents around the world can say.”

The federal government has described the local manufacture of 50 million doses of the Astra­Zeneca vaccine as its “ace in the hole” given vaccine supply problems that are plaguing Europe.

Australia’s safety and quality process for vaccine manufacture was among the best in the world, Mr Morrison said. “When you go to your GP clinic or the place that you will go to get your vaccination, you can have great confidence, not just in the vaccine itself but the Australian production process,” he said.

CSL chief scientific officer ­Andrew Nash described the process of intensive quality assurance that will begin when the doses are poured into the vials. Teams of 20 specialist staff will be working around the clock to personally ­inspect every single vial.

“The vaccine itself has to be inspected to make sure that the container is intact and not damaged, we have to make sure that every vial, what we’ve put into it, looks like what it should look like,” Dr Nash said. “So there’s a visual ­inspection of every vial.”

The work takes so much concentration that the workers must take frequent breaks. “It’s a very taxing job,” Dr Nash said. “So they work in I think it’s 20 minutes slots, where they’re looking at five vials at a time for any ­deviations from what you might expect. They’re looking for any damage to the to the glass vial, any damage to the cap, they’ll look at the liquid itself, and make sure that it’s completely clear.”

Only about 2 per cent of vials are rejected, usually because of damage to the bottle or the caps.

The Australian government signed a supply deal with AstraZeneca in the second half of last year, with CSL contracted to ­locally manufacture the bulk of it.

The company had to invest in new equipment to be able to manufacture the viral vector vaccine, which contains a non-replicating chimpanzee virus that has been modified to carry the code for the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein.

The vaccine works by infecting the body’s cells with the modified chimpanzee virus, inducing the body to produce copies of the spike protein, generating an immune ­response. Hundreds of CSL staff have been working long hours for months preparing the first local doses, which will be ready in late March, following testing by the Therapeutic Goods Administration.