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13 Novmember 2020
A “really exciting” Australian-made coronavirus vaccine could be available to the public by as soon as July.
The vaccine, known as V451, is being produced by researchers at the University of Queensland and, importantly, is proving to be especially effective on the elderly.
The breakthrough comes just days after American pharmaceutical giant Pfizer claimed its coronavirus vaccine had proven 90 per cent effective in preventing illness. However, inconclusive data on side effects means the vaccine won’t initially be available for the elderly, pregnant women or children.
Early indications from the Australian vaccine suggest side effects are minimal.
“The initial data is very clear, that the vaccine is proving to be safe through phase I clinical trials and that it is proving to produce a positive antibody response,’’ Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said.
“That means it is doing its job. That is particularly so in the elderly, and that is an especially important outcome, given the global vulnerability to elderly around the world from COVID-19.”
Healthcare workers and the elderly will be the first to be offered the vaccine, Mr Hunt said, followed by critical service workers.
Mr Hunt also revealed local biotech company CSL had completed the manufacturing of the vaccine to allow the third stage of the clinical trials to begin, a collaboration he described as one of the “greatest national peacetime achievements that Australia has ever witnessed”,
The Advertiser reported.
“That is an extraordinary development,” he said. “Our national goal is to ensure that all Australians who seek to be vaccinated are vaccinated by the end of 2021.”
The Federal Government has already purchased 51 million units of the Queensland vaccine.
The University of Queensland’s infectious diseases physician Dr Paul Griffin said early results from human trials was “really exciting”.