It could take up to a year for Australian biotech company CSL to develop the capability to make a COVID-19 vaccine if a non-protein-based version proves safe and effective, Australian Minister for Industry, Science and Technology Karen Andrews has said.
Andrews said CSL would be able to immediately start making a protein-based vaccine, but “significant work” would be required if it was another type based on mRNA, or messenger ribonucleic acid.
Vaccines traditionally introduce proteins into the body to provoke the immunity system into responding, but if an mRNA vaccine of the kind being developed by US company Moderna is approved, it would be the first of its type, experts say.
Photo: EPA-EFE
During an interview yesterday with the Australian Broadcasting Corp’s (ABC) Insiders program, Andrews was pressed to give a timeframe to get production up and running in Australia if an mRNA vaccine was approved.
“I would hope that we would be able to do it in about the nine-month to 12-month timeframe,” she said. “But I think we need to be really conscious that with a vaccine, there are a lot of variables in there. So we don’t have the vaccine proven at this point in time, we don’t know what the base for that vaccine is going to be, so we are trying to prepare across a wide range.”
The government would give support to CSL to help it ramp up its capability and roll out technical upgrades, she said.
Australian Minister for Health Greg Hunt later in the day moved to assure people that the nation was “very strongly placed” when it came to securing access to and producing vaccines.
“We in a strong position, we’re progressing, there’s never a guarantee — but what we know is that we’ve been exceptionally cautious in relation to vaccines and each day the evidence is stronger and the proximity to distribution of that treatment is closer,” Hunt said.
He said that Andrews had been asked a hypothetical question about non-protein vaccines and was “absolutely right that some of the mRNA ones will take longer.”
However, the protein-based vaccine candidate being developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford remained “on track for first quarter [2021] commencement and significant rollout during the course of the year [2021],” he said.
Meanwhile, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison criticized the Victoria government for delaying an announcement about the easing of COVID-19 restrictions, saying Victoria’s public health systems “are either up to the task of dealing with future outbreaks or they are not.”
Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews yesterday held off announcing opening dates for the retail and hospitality sectors pending the outcome of tests from an outbreak in Melbourne’s northern suburbs.
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