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Whilst the rollout of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in the UK has made headlines around the world, various countries are forging ahead with developing their own.

The UK’s second recipient of the vaccine was a man named William Shakespeare, so I’m trying to think who Australia would roll out if and when their vaccine is ready.

A bloke called Merv Hughes, perhaps?

Anyway, we may be waiting a little longer to find out, because the Australian government has now terminated its agreement with Australian biotech company CSL Limited, which was due to provide 51 million doses of a COVID-19 vaccine being developed in Queensland.

The issue was that vaccine trial participants returned false-positive test results for HIV, reports the Guardian:

Australia had hoped the protein vaccine would be available by mid-2021. Phase one clinical trials in humans began in July in Brisbane, with phase two and three clinical trials due to commence in December. It is one of four vaccines secured by the Australian government…

In a statement issued on Friday morning, CSL said “following consultation with the Australian government, CSL will not progress the vaccine candidate to phase 2/3 clinical trials”.

Researchers at the University of Queensland had been focused on the COVID-19 “spike protein”, with technology used to lock the protein into a shape that the immune system would recognise:

Trial participants were advised of the possibility that vaccine-induced HIV antibodies might be detected as a result, but it was nonetheless unexpected. Subsequent HIV tests provided definitive negative results in the trial participants.

While the HIV tests were false positives and there was no risk to the trial participants, significant changes would need to be made to well-established HIV testing procedures to accommodate rollout of this vaccine, the researchers said. The Phase 1 trial will continue, where further analysis of the data will show how long the antibodies persist.

Professor Paul Young said that it would be possible to reengineer the vaccine, but doing so would set them back around a year, which is a timeframe that just doesn’t cut it.

Australian prime minister Scott Morrison said the decision to terminate the agreement showed that the government was putting the safety of its citizens ahead of rushing a vaccine rollout.

He added that the deal with CSL Limited was far from the only vaccine agreement, and that Australia still had around 140 million vaccine units available, which were at various stages of testing.

Two potential vaccine candidates have already published data from phase three trials.

As things stand, it appears that South Africa could have access to a suitable vaccine by the second quarter of 2021. This was announced by President Ramaphosa earlier in the week, although it’s expected that we’ll only have enough vaccine units to cover around 10% of the population.

With the second wave officially upon us, the need to remain vigilant is more pressing than ever.

[source:guardian]