Biotech giant CSL will produce the first batches of the University of Queensland's COVID-19 vaccine if it is shown to work, with the company throwing funding support behind the vaccine's development and saying millions of doses could be available by 2021.
On Friday morning the $133 billion life sciences operator confirmed it had entered into a formal partnership with UQ and the Oslo-based Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) to fund the clinical development and manufacture of the UQ vaccine candidate.
Researchers at the University of Queensland are racing to develop a vaccine and early tests have shown positive results.Credit:University of Queensland
The funding will be used to cover the phase one safety study, later clinical trials and the first phase of large-scale production should trials show the product is safe to use.
If the vaccine receives the green light, the first large-scale production runs will occur out of CSL's Melbourne production facilities.
"CSL anticipates that the production technology can be scaled to produce up to one hundred million doses towards the end of 2021," the company said in a statement.
The agreement would mean CSL would be able to subcontract to other vaccine manufacturers across the world to increase the number of doses being produced.
"Should trials be successful, this vaccine holds the potential to provide protection against this urgent public health emergency for Australians and those around the world vulnerable to this devastating virus," CSL's chief scientific officer Professor Andrew Cuthbertson said.
The University of Queensland's vaccine candidate uses its "molecular clamp" technology that lets the immune system respond more effectively. The virus that causes COVID-19 is covered in proteins which attach to cells, uncoil and then infect them.
The molecular clamp technology locks those proteins in place before they uncoil. People who are vaccinated develop antibodies to the coiled shape of the proteins, meaning their immune system can recognise the virus and fend it off.
CSL has been working with researchers on the vaccine candidate for months and will supply its MF59 adjuvant, which improves immune response, for use in development.
The vaccine candidate must still clear a number of hurdles before it can be commercialised. It is hoped a phase 1 trial will begin in July.
If the development is successful, CEPI and CSL will each receive an allocation of vaccine doses depending on the amounts they ended up contributing in funding.
CEPI has provided funding support to a range of vaccine developers globally, including US biotech Moderna.
CSL said it would use its allocation to supply Australians in the first instance and then look to its regional neighbours.
More to come
Emma is the small business reporter for The Age and Sydney Morning Herald based in Melbourne.
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