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- Australia scrapped a $ 750 million project after some participants in a vaccine trial tested false positive for HIV.
- It is the first time that a country has abandoned a vaccination attempt.
- Health Minister Greg Hunt said on Friday that the test vaccine, developed by the University of Queensland and biotechnology firm CSL, “triggered an antibody response that could interfere with HIV detection.”
- The University of Queensland said that the test vaccine had shown promising signs in the fight against Covid-19 and that “routine follow-up tests confirmed that there is no presence of the HIV virus.”
- To make up for the cancellation, Australia has increased its orders for vaccines developed by AstraZeneca, Pfizer and Novavax, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said.
- Visit the Business Insider home page for more stories.
Australia has become the first country in the world to scrap a coronavirus vaccine project, after an injection developed as part of the $ 750 million scheme caused trial participants to falsely test positive for HIV.
The University of Queensland and Australian biotechnology firm CSL had been conducting clinical trials on a prototype vaccine with the support of the Australian government and the Coalition for Innovations in Epidemic Preparedness.
But at a press conference on Friday, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced that the project had been terminated.
“We can’t have any problem with trust,” he said. “We are now a nation, with a good portfolio of vaccines, capable of making these decisions to better protect the Australian people.”
Instead, Morrison said his government would increase orders for other vaccines – that is, 120 million more doses of the Pfizer vaccine, 20 million more shorts of the AstraZeneca vaccine and 11 million additional doses of the Novavax vaccine.
Speaking after Morrison, Health Minister Greg Hunt said that Queensland’s trial vaccine “triggered an antibody response that could interfere with HIV detection.”
Several trial participants who received an injection of the prototype vaccine had tested positive for HIV, despite not having the virus.
The test vaccine had used parts of a protein found in HIV, which triggered antibodies commonly seen during HIV tests.
Despite false positive HIV test results, the test vaccine showed promising signs in fighting the coronavirus, the University of Queensland said in a statement on Friday.
“The UQ-CSL v451 Covid-19 vaccine has been shown to elicit a robust response to the virus and has a strong safety profile,” he said.
“However, after consulting with the Australian government, CSL will not advance the candidate vaccine to phase 2/3 clinical trials.”
“There is no possibility that the vaccine will cause [HIV] infection and routine follow-up tests confirmed that there is no presence of the HIV virus, “the university added.
As of Friday, Australia has recorded 28,012 Covid-19 cases and 908 deaths in total, data from the Health Ministry show.
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