Posted by Michael Wonder on 20 Jul 2020
Australian COVID researchers warn vaccines will have to be made overseas
20 July 2020 - Researchers at Monash University say if their COVID-19 vaccine is successful they will be forced to rely on overseas companies to make it because Australia does not have the manufacturing capabilities to produce certain types of vaccines.
Researchers across the world are using different approaches for developing a successful vaccine, but not all of them have a clear path to being manufactured at scale. Some of the frontrunner candidates, including US biotech Moderna, are working to create what are known as mRNA vaccines, a new approach to vaccine making.
A team at Monash University is the first locally to use this approach but because there are no mRNA vaccines yet cleared for human use, Australia does not have manufacturing to produce these types of products at scale.
