Australia’s potential coronavirus vaccine was withdrawn when several research subjects returned false positive HIV test findings.
The University of Queensland, in collaboration with the pharmaceutical firm CSL, was designing the vaccine and the government requested 51 million doses.
However these preparations were suddenly scrapped owing to concerns that incorrect findings could undermine public trust in the COVID-19 vaccine program.
From the dailymail.co.uk:
Mr Petrovsky told The Australian the issues were with the level of antibodies they were generating against the clamp which were against HIV.
He said the early data suggested the vaccine itself was quite unstable.
‘Overall it just didn’t look like it was going to be a successful vaccine, that’s why we were surprised when the government committed millions of dollars to it, it just seemed disproportionate.’
Prime Minister Scott Morrison revealed on Friday he urgently ordered more of two other vaccines currently in late-stage trials.
The government secured an extra 20 million doses of the Oxford University/AstraZeneca vaccine, taking the total to 53.8 million, and an extra 11 million doses of the Novavax vaccine, taking the total doses of that jab to 51 million.
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Source Credit: dailymail.co.uk
