Federal Government invests in home-grown Vaccines
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has announced a $1 Billion investment into a new vaccine manufacturing plant in Melbourne.
The plant will be funded in partnership with pharmaceutical company CSL and will focus on flu vaccines as well as small number of lifesaving antivenom.
The announcement comes as a result of the vulnerabilities Australia has experienced during the COVID19 pandemic through its reliance on offshore manufacturing of science technologies, particularly vaccines. The government hopes that the new plant will help insure Australia against the potential
Dr Peter Moyle, Senior Lecture in Pharmacology at the University of Queensland says that Australia strength lies in scientific research and launching vaccines into human trail stages, but we fall short in our capacity for manufacturing.
In a climate in which successive federal governments have been accused of starving our domestic science and health technologies industries, many claim Australian self-sufficient manufacturing is shockingly behind.
Former Minister for Industry, Science and technology Kim Carr says Australia’s dependence on global markets for the manufacture of vaccines is not a new problem, but the COVID-19 pandemic has shown us just how great the really is need for Australia to develop a home-grown vaccine manufacturing capability.