Maria Vamvakinou (Calwell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm very pleased to speak to the member for Ryan's private member's motion today, noting the worldwide development for the COVID-19 vaccine. I also want to acknowledge the government's recent announcement of the $1.7 billion agreement for two of the most promising COVID-19 vaccines: the University of Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine and our very own University of Queensland CSL vaccine. The agreement will see the vaccine manufactured entirely in Australia. I'm especially excited about the prospects of the vaccine because, being a Victorian, I can say with relief that today marks 31 days of zero cases, zero deaths and zero active cases. This is a very fine achievement by my fellow Victorians, because we have emerged from one of the toughest and longest lockdowns in the world. My electorate bore some of the brunt of the pandemic. It is so exciting to speak to this motion today, because my electorate of Calwell is at the centre of where Australia's COVID-19 vaccine is going to be manufactured, and that is at CSL Broadmeadows. CSL Behring has a long history in Broadmeadows. It's an iconic institution and we are proud as a community to be part of this very exciting venture.

Last week, I visited CSL with the shadow minister for health, Chris Bowen. We received a briefing from CSL which confirmed that it will begin manufacturing the University of Oxford AstraZeneca AZD1222 COVID-19 vaccine candidate at its advanced manufacturing facility in Broadmeadows. We were also taken on a tour of where the manufacturing will be happening. CSL has separate contracts with AstraZeneca and the Australian government to manufacture approximately 30 million doses of the AZD1222 vaccine candidate, which are planned for release in the first half of 2021, pending the outcome of clinical trials and regulatory approvals. The manufacturing process will start with the four vials containing vaccine cells. The cells, frozen under liquid nitrogen to preserve their integrity, need to be thawed in preparation for replication in the bioreactors at the company's Broadmeadows facilities. After growing in the bioreactors, the vaccine is filtered and purified, leaving just the antigen, or the vaccine product. It is then ready for final formulation and filling into dosage vials. The vial-thaw milestone follows several months of close collaboration and preparation by CSL and AstraZeneca technical experts, which I'm told is a first. It is first that CSL is manufacturing someone else's vaccine. During 2020-21, CSL will manufacture eight large-scale batches of vaccine drug substance. Should the vaccine demonstrate its safety and efficacy in clinical trials that are currently underway, it is anticipated that it will require a two-dose per person regime. The vaccine will not be released for use, of course, until the relevant clinical trials and manufacturing data are reviewed and approved by the Australian government's regulatory authority, the TGA, the Therapeutic Goods Administration.

The Australian government has provided support to CSL in order to augment its capacity and capability to manufacture the AZD1222 vaccine, and this support has enabled the acquisition of specialised equipment and production inputs, the recruitment, training and redeployment of dozens of additional production personnel, and the reconfiguration of air handling and structural modification to the manufacturing facility. Through extensive company-wide coordination, CSL has scheduled production of AZD1222 in addition to manufacturing the UQ-CSL V451 COVID-19 vaccine candidate, while also maintaining its commitment to manufacture the company's vital core biotherapies. Multiple doses of the UQ-CSL V451 vaccine candidate have already been manufactured at the Broadmeadows facility and are held in readiness to progress the vaccine to phase 2 and 3 clinical trials. CSL's chief scientific officer Dr Andrew Nash said:

This is an important milestone and marks the end of many months of around the clock preparation by our skilled personnel globally within CSL Behring, Seqirus and research and development. Both campaigns are still technically challenging but at this time we are tracking well and expect to produce the AZD1222 and the UQ-CSL V451 vaccine for Australia by mid-2021.

This is indeed great news. There's great cause for hope, and I look forward to Australians receiving a COVID-19 vaccine at some stage in the course of next year.

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