Australia orders 84Mn doses of COVID-19 vaccines for roll-out in 2021

The Government of Australia has announced its intent to purchase more than 84 million doses of potential coronavirus vaccines on a condition that they succeed clinical trials. The is vaccine is planned to be purchased from the Oxford University and Astrazeneca.

According to sources, the government has secured an agreement for the vaccines, and has also proposed plans to locally produce another candidate from the University of Queensland and CSL as part of a $1.7 billion production & supply agreement.

With the proposed plan of gaining early access of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, some Australians could be vaccinated by January, whereas about 3.8 million doses are expected to be procured by early 2021. The initial batch of the vaccine doses are likely to be offered to vulnerable people and front-line health workers.

Elaborating further, the agreement includes 51 million doses of a UQ vaccine and 33.8 million doses of an Oxford vaccine. The vaccine developed by Oxford will be made available by the beginning of 2021, while a UQ vaccine is expected to be available by mid-2021, if both vaccine trials show successful and safe results.

Reports estimate that over 95% of the vaccine doses will be produced in Australia, with each batch taking around one month to produce. They are expected to be delivered monthly, beginning in January, depending on meeting regulatory approval.

Speaking on these plans, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the two vaccines are required to be proven safe and effective in trials and meet regulatory requirements before being made publicly available. He said that Australians will gain free access to a COVID-19 vaccine by 2021 if trials are successful.

According to a report by the World Health Organization (WHO), there are currently around 165 COVID-19 vaccine candidates in development worldwide, with 32 involved in human trials and eight in the advanced Phase 3 trials.

Source Credit: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-09-06/free-coronavirus-vaccine-to-be-made-available-throughout-20212/12635174