New jab could be made in Australia
HEALTH Minister Greg Hunt is “confident” mRNA vaccines will be produced in Australia in the near future.
His comments came as Moderna announced it would supply 25 million vaccine doses to Australia under a new supply deal.
The drug manufacturer also announced its interest in building manufacturing capability in Australia after the government allocated money for it in this week’s federal budget.
Health Minister Greg Hunt on Thursday said he hoped Australia would have at least one mRNA manufacturing operation in the future.
“I won’t make a guarantee on that but I am confident … we will have mRNA production in Australia,” he said.
Industry Minister Christian Porter will lead the approach to market in the next 10 days.
Moderna joins CSL and Biosena in publicly acknowledging interest in establishing mRNA capability in Australia.
Mr Hunt said there were others but the government didn’t know if they would be put forward.
“Certainly we would prefer private-sector owned and operated. That is an important way to do it,” he said.
Health Department secretary Brendan Murphy said it was unlikely capability would be established this year.
“It is going to be some time next year, I would imagine, before
mRNA vaccines can be produced here,” Prof Murphy said. “MRNA vaccine technology is likely to be much broader than COVID vaccine. So it is something that we in Australia need to have anyway. Our primary vaccination strategy is in no way dependent on this.”
Prof Murphy said the capability would also aid flu and other vaccine manufacturing in the future.
“We are one of the small number of countries that have onshore sovereign vaccine manufacturing capability and we want to keep ahead of the game in that space,” he said.
Moderna chief executive Stéphane Bancel said it planned to open a commercial subsidiary in Australia in 2021.
“We appreciate the partnership and support from the government of Australia with this first supply agreement for doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine and our variant booster candidates,” Mr Bancel said. “We look forward to continuing discussions with Australia about establishing potential local manufacturing.”