Canberra: An Australian COVID-19 vaccine being worked on by the University of Queensland (UQ) and local biotech firm CSL will not advance to Phase 2 and 3 trials after false-positive HIV test outcomes were reported, it was declared on Friday.
Relevant groups declared that regardless of eliciting an effective virus reaction and strong safety profile, a deal for the Australian government to buy more than 50 million dosages of the vaccine had been dropped, reports Xinhua news organization.
UQ and CSL emphasized that there was no possibility the vaccine causes HIV infection and that 216 individuals associated with the trial encountered no serious adverse health effects.
The issue originates from the utilization of an HIV protein to stabilize UQ’s molecular clamp vaccine.
Despite representing no danger to health, the presence of the protein prompts an antibody reaction which is detectable in HIV tests.
Nonetheless, because of the implications of delivering the vaccine to the wider populaces and potential interference with existing HIV testing procedures, CSL, and the Australian government agreed vaccine development would not continue to Phase 2/3 trials.
The clinical epidemiologist at the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, Nancy Baxter said to Australian Broadcasting Corporation: “Obviously if we have other great options for vaccines, then it wouldn’t make sense for people to have a false-positive HIV test. So that’s why this has stopped.”
Chief Scientific Officer for CSL Dr. Andrew Nash stated the result highlights the risk of failure connected with early vaccine development
CSL will proceed with plans to manufacture around 30 million dosages of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine candidate with first dosages expected for release in Australia in early 2021.
After the disappointment of the UQ vaccine, the Australian government uncovered it would commission the manufacture of additional 20 million dosages of the Oxford/AstraZeneca and grow access to the US Novavax vaccine to around 50 million dosages.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said it was not surprising that not every vaccine candidate made it to the end of the trial procedure and that a commitment to health and safety was fundamental to the government’s reply.
Morrison said, “I do want to thank, though, Professor Paul Young and all the team up there at the University of Queensland for the amazing work that they have done in getting the vaccine to that stage.”
He added, “We will continue to support and fund the work that they’re doing on molecular clamp research on vaccines, which has application in many other areas.”
