Moderna confirms plans to bring Covid-19 vaccine manufacturing to Australia

The first doses of the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine arrive at Sydney Airport. Over 1800 pharmacies across Australia are expected to distribute the Moderna vaccine next week. (Photo by Bianca De Marchi – Pool/Getty Images)

• JARED LYNCH

  REPORTER

  @jaredm_lynch

  
• 11:03AM SEPTEMBER 18, 2021
• 25 COMMENTS

Moderna’s chief medical officer Paul Burton has confirmed the company is in talks with the Australian government about shifting production of its Covid-19 vaccine technology down under.

Dr Burton’s comments come as the first one million doses of Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine arrive in Australia this weekend and are set to be distributed to community pharmacists by the end of next week.

Like Pfizer’s vaccine – the jab of choice for those aged under 60 – Moderna uses messenger RNA or mRNA technology, which instructs the body’s cells to make a protein that triggers an immune response against Covid-19.

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Despite being the subject of research papers 30 years ago, and with development on its use in humans beginning a decade ago, it has taken the Covid-19 pandemic to thrust mRNA technology into the mainstream.

It is now being hailed as the next generation of vaccines, with Australia’s biggest health company CSL developing a influenza vaccine using the technology, with plans to build new factories in Melbourne that could produce two doses of mRNA vaccine for every Australian in 16 weeks.

Dr Burton confirmed Moderna was also looking to start manufacturing in Australia, with the company in talks with the federal government about a potential partnership.

“We are looking to bring manufacturing to Australia, in Australia, for Australia by Australia, and we‘re in discussions with the government about that, so that’s exciting,” Dr Burton told The Weekend Australian.

“We see Australia as a real hub for us. Our head of Asia Pacific medical affairs is going to be based in Australia. That‘s fantastic. There are fantastic investigators, fantastic clinical centres. Australia was a very important part of our global strategy for the mRNA platform.”

So far, Australia has been reliant on overseas companies and manufacturers to access mRNA technology, with the Morrison government cobbling together vaccine swap deals with Poland, the UK and Singapore to secure an extra five million doses of the Pfizer jab and accelerate the nations Covid-19 immunisation program.

Dr Buton said while he wasn’t across the full negotiations with the federal government, but expected a collaboration to be “firmed up within coming months, early 2022”.

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Early in the pandemic, the government entered agreements with CSL to produce more than 51 million of the AstraZeneca vaccine in Melbourne, as well as the jab that CSL was developing with the University of Queensland (UQ).

But the UQ vaccine development was abandoned late last year after trials revealed it triggered false positives for HIV. Meanwhile, Australians have been hesitant to be inoculated with the AstraZeneca jab after it was linked to rare blood clots.

Vaccine hesitancy has become a significant challenge during, particularly as at least 70 per cent of the country needs to be fully immunised for restrictions to start to ease and international travel to resume.

It is something that Dr Burton is acutely aware of. Last month Japan suspended more than 1.6 million doses of the Moderna vaccine after vials were contaminated with foreign particles.

The source of the contamination was from a line change at the factory of its manufacturing partner ROVID Pharma Industrial Services, in Spain, which resulted in small metal particles entering the vaccine.

“We caught it, we found out why it happened. We‘ve got you know, a very thorough corrective action plan in place. We did a very careful medical assessment, and you know, there really is no risk of these little tiny stainless steel particles – even if some that end up being injected,” Dr Burton said.

“They‘re very tiny. The barrel of the syringe is, you know, three times a human hair. So it’s tiny, it isn’t a risk. But … people depend on us for a high quality product, and we’re committed to delivering that.”

The first two million doses of the Moderna vaccine that Australia will receive will come from Moderna’s Belgium plant.

Dr Burton stressed Moderna’s vaccine was safe, with more than 200 million doses administered so far across the globe.

“At the end of the day, I think you have to go back to the massive database that we have worldwide now. Looking at efficacy, looking at safety, it‘s a fantastic platform,” he said.

The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) has approved and the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) has recommended the use of the Moderna vaccine for Australians aged 12 and over.

Health Minister Greg Hunt said the first one million doses will be “distributed to more than 1800 community pharmacies across the country and put into the arms of Australians in the next week”.

“A further 1800 community pharmacies across the country will start to receive doses the week commencing September 27,” Mr Hunt said.

“To date, we have administered over 24 million Covid-19 vaccines across Australia, with more than 70 per cent of Australians having received a first dose and 45 per cent having received a second dose. These are important achievements as we move closer, every day, to the vaccination rates required for us to safely reopen our country.”

Australia has an advance purchase agreement with Moderna to secure 25 million doses of the vaccine – 10 million this year and 15 million in 2022. The Moderna vaccine doses will go through the standard TGA batch-testing process as all other Covid-19 vaccines.

JARED LYNCH

REPORTER