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Some of the country’s top scientists are calling on the government to urgently invest millions in research and development for Covid-19 vaccines.
Professor Graham Le Gros.
Photo: Supplied
Estimates suggest that it will be at least a year before international doses can be produced in large quantities, and it is feared that New Zealand may be near the end of the supply line.
Scientists here say New Zealand cannot afford to wait for other countries to develop a vaccine and are urging the government to invest millions of public funds in research and development.
New Zealanders have been regularly warned, life may not return to normal until a Covid-19 vaccine is available. A global race to develop one is underway, but the director of the Malaghan Institute, Professor Graham Le Gros, cautions that New Zealand urgently needs its own solution.
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“The vaccine will be too late to save New Zealand. We need a vaccine sooner, not later, we cannot wait.”
“We need to have a vaccine to be able to trade again. We are a trading nation that requires goods and services and people that move around the world, and only one vaccine will allow people to travel abroad where Covid-19 is endemic, and only one Vaccine will protect us from the virus that returns to New Zealand. “
A group of researchers from the University of Otago are believed to be the only scientists in the country to currently cultivate and test the virus.
Professor Le Gros said that there are other laboratories in this country that are capable of developing and mass producing a Covid-19 vaccine. Investigators already employed by the government could begin to figure out how to immunize people immediately, he said.
“In the case of some of the government organizations like AgResearch, simply by having the government tell government workers that they can now redirect their energies to the Covid-19 problems.
“One of the funny things is that we are still bound by our regulations and our job descriptions … we need the government to say ‘this is the job that needs to be done.'”
University of Otago associate professor James Ussher said as much as $ 10 million is required for research and clinical trials, but the knowledge is there.
“We have facilities and we have capacity, and we have the experience and the knowledge to do it, but what we need is a commitment from the government to finance that.”
“It must be a decision that is made sooner rather than later because the clock is ticking and these things take a while to be made … the longer we leave it, the longer we will be without a New Zealand vaccine for New Zealanders.”
Helen Petousis-Harris, a vaccinologist and associate professor at the University of Auckland, said that scientists around the world are working at never-before-seen rates to develop a vaccine.
Helen Petousis-Harris of the University of Auckland.
Photo: Auckland University
Once one was found, Dr. Petousis-Harris said New Zealand companies should be ready to mass-produce.
“One of the challenges will be producing enough vaccine. There will probably be several different candidates, but producing enough for the world very quickly is a huge task.”
“So if we had those facilities available that could be modified to do something like that, I think it would be a great help.”
Dr. Petousis-Harris said that long-term underinvestment has meant that the world was not as prepared as it might have been for the Covid-19 pandemic.
The government’s investment here will also help prepare the country for the next pandemic, he said.
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