JONAH SMITH, CSL SEQIRUS VICE PRESIDENT: Good morning. We’re here today to open CSL Seqirus’s new Influenza Vaccine and Antivenom Manufacturing Facility here in Melbourne. My name is Jonah Smith. I’m the site head. I’m delighted to welcome the Honourable Mark Butler, Minister for Health and Aging and Disability. And Minister Danny Pearson, Minister for Economic Growth and Jobs. This is an Australian owned and operated facility, which will use innovative cell-based technology to manufacture seasonal and pandemic vaccines for here in Australia but also around the globe.
We will be one of only 3 countries in the world with this capability, and it significantly evolves the technology and more than doubles the capacity of the particle facility which it replaced. It's also the only manufacturing site in the world which will be capable of producing Australia's antivenoms and the Q fever vaccine. The new facility is highly scalable, automated, and addresses many of the shortcomings of traditional egg-based influenza vaccine technology. It's less reliant on large stockpiles of raw materials, and it gives Australia the ability to rapidly produce vaccines with this new technology.
In the event of an influenza pandemic, we will switch this facility from seasonal vaccine manufacturing and rapidly produce over 150 million vaccines for the first wave of protection, protecting Australia, but also other nations. There is no doubt this facility will help protect and save lives in the future. CSL has invested over a billion dollars in this facility to build a very digitally enabled, environmentally sustainable facility which will employ hundreds of highly skilled experts throughout the year, support a supply chain worth $300 million to the Australian economy annually. It supports our long-term relationship with the Australian Government, to protect Australia's health by having onshore capability for pandemic flu vaccines, antivenoms and Q fever. Our thanks also go to the Victorian Government for help us securing this site.
At CSL, we're a global company, but we've always been uniquely Australian. And so opening this onshore facility today is a day of great pride for us. I’d now like to hand to the Honourable Mark Butler.
MARK BUTLER, MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGEING, MINISTER FOR DISABILITY AND THE NDIS: Thanks, Jonah. This is such an exciting day for one of Australia's outstanding success stories. CSL has been delivering for the Australian people for 100 years, and is one of the globe's most innovative, successful flu vaccine manufacturers. This plant today delivers the Australian people security of supplies for seasonal and pandemic flu vaccine for many, many years to come. The construction of this plant is underpinned by a $1 billion contract between the Commonwealth Government and CSL Seqirus to deliver seasonal flu vaccines, but also a capability for flu vaccine supply in the event of an Influenza pandemic. It also secures supply for Australia's antivenoms, as Jonah has said, and also the only manufacturer of Q fever vaccines for the global market.
We've got a very important security of supply delivered by this new plant. But it's also innovation. It's cutting edge. It will be the most cutting-edge manufacturing of flu vaccines in the southern hemisphere, moving from the traditional egg-based vaccine manufacturing that CSL has been doing for many decades here in Victoria to cell-based manufacturing, which is more resilient, more adaptable, and more effective for patients.
It's a great story, another great chapter in CSL's great story here in Victoria, delivering for Australians, but also for the rest of the world, and it will as I'm sure Danny Pearson will talk about deliver hundreds of well-paid highly skilled jobs here in Melbourne's west.
Congratulations to everyone at CSL who has made this latest chapter in CSL's history possible, with the fractionation far out in Broadmeadows, the research and development facility that's recently been opened over the last several years in Parkview. CSL is building its next several decades of important delivery to Australia. I’ll hand over to the Minister for Jobs, Danny Pearson.
DANNY PEARSON, VICTORIAN MINISTER FOR ECONOMIC GROWTH AND JOBS: Thanks Mark. This is a great day for Melbourne, it's a great day for Victoria. This billion-dollar investment will serve the creation of over 350 highly skilled jobs right here, plus many more that’s going to be creating the supply chain. This is about making sure that we are planning for any future pandemic that may come our way, and making sure that we've got the ability to keep us all safe and protected whether it's Q fever, whether it's snake bites, or spider bites, or in relation to influenza. This is a significant investment. It builds on Victoria's reputation as a centre for excellence when it comes to medical research in the pharmaceutical sector. I want to thank CSL for the investment here in Victoria, because I know this is going to mean we can keep the community safer in the event that there's a pandemic down the track. Look around you, this is what can be achieved with partnership between ourselves, a great company like CSL and the Commonwealth, and this is sovereign capability right here. This is going to mean that we can ensure that we are best prepared and well placed to deal with whatever challenges may come our way now and into the future. Happy to take questions.
JOURNALIST: Overnight we saw the UK, will pay I think 25 per cent more under a deal with Trump for US medicines. The US says it hopes other countries will follow suit. Will something like this happen in Australia?
BUTLER: The first thing to say is that our PBS has delivered extraordinary things for the Australian people for more than 80 years now. Access to the world's best medicines at affordable PBS prices. We've been focused on making sure that Australians have access to even more medicines, listing more than 350 in the time that we've been in Government, and at even cheaper prices. And those prices become even cheaper on 30 January. The first assurance I want to give the Australian people is that we will never compromise those 2 important elements of the PBS for the Australian people.
But we do know of course in policy by the US Administration. We're engaging closely, not just with the US Administration, particularly through the Embassy in Washington, but with global pharmaceutical companies that will be impacted with this as well. I talk with them very regularly and I'm making sure that we have a set of policies in place in Australia that continues to deliver those PBS outcomes to the Australian people.
JOURNALIST: Is the government open to paying more for US medicines through the PBS?
BUTLER: I'm not going to pre-empt what those discussions might lead to with the US Administration or with other pharmaceutical companies. Obviously, we are trying make sure we understand this dynamic shift that's happening in the global pharmaceutical market to ensure that we can deliver access to as many medicines as possible at the most affordable price possible for the Australian people.
JOURNALIST: Has the US Government approached us about paying that?
BUTLER: I’m not going to go into those discussions except to say, as I said, there's very deep engagement between our government, both from Australia and through the US Embassy in Washington, the Australian Embassy in Washington, and obviously we'll continue to have those discussions, but we're one of 193 other countries who are engaging with the Americans about this.
JOURNALIST: Can I just ask you very quickly about telehealth? The TGA's Chief Medical Advisor has said in a discussion about medicinal cannabis, there's serious issues in Australia with the way telehealth works for single source providers of different types of medicine like cannabis, and then injectables, GLP-1s. Are you happy with the way telehealth is performing in Australia generally? Are you satisfied with the way telehealth works in Australia?
BUTLER: Telehealth has been a really significant innovation in Australian healthcare, particularly, frankly, since the beginning of COVID. Only over the last 5 years or so. It delivers a lot of functionality for patients, convenience for patients, particularly those who find it a little difficult to travel or aren't within a convenient distance of healthcare providers. But I think we've found over the last 5 years as the model has frankly exploded in some areas, that we need to make sure that there are proper quality controls in the system. The Medical Board and the Medical Council have been updating their expectations of clinicians who engage in telehealth.
And the TGA has embarked upon a consultation in particular about telehealth models for medicinal cannabis. I think there's been a lot of coverage about some of the closed loop models, if you like, the business models where people get a referral and a script and then a dispensed product from essentially the same business, and frankly I think that's a consultation that is an important one to ensure that we're delivering the best service for Australian patients but with the proper quality controls in place.
JOURNALIST: Will the government consider expanding PBS access to the GLP-1 weight loss medications now that the World Health Organization has officially recommended it for obesity and weight loss?
BUTLER: There are a couple of answers to that. I've seen some reports about the latest WHO advice about GLP-1s and obesity in particular. Firstly, individual sponsors will make an application from time to time to the PBAC, the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee, to seek grounds for a listing of their products for the treatment of obesity. Sometimes obesity in and of itself, sometimes obesity connected with for example cardiovascular disease risk, and I know a number of sponsors have done, and the PBAC will deal with those applications as they ordinarily would.
In addition to that, though, I have also asked the PBAC for some particular advice about how we as a government might think about the treatment of obesity with GLP-1s. A number of countries around the world and the WHO in their latest advice have raised issues of equity here. We know that a lot of Australians and people in other countries are accessing GLP-1s like Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro for essentially weight-loss purposes but in the private market. They might be paying $400 or $500 a month for that. That raises obvious socio-economic equity issues and I've asked the PBAC for some advice about how we might consider rolling out in a proper way the availability of GLP-1s for obesity, and I haven't yet got that advice.
I think the important thing to say when you look at the WHO's latest advice and some of the regulator advice from around the world is that if there is access to GLP-1s for weight loss it must be as part of a general course of treatment and advice; weight loss treatment, activity and a range of other things other than just the use of a GLP-1. When we get that advice we'll consider it carefully. This is obviously a class of drugs that have really taken the world by storm. They're very significant new medicines and we want to make sure we get access and affordability and equity right.
JOURNALIST: I just wanted to follow up Jen's question about advice, asking PBAC for advice. You asked for that advice in March. Is there any indication of when it will report back and how long will Australians have to wait for this expansion to be broadened?
BUTLER: I want them to get the advice right. This is a very novel thing that I've asked the PBAC to do. It's not the typical way in which our medicine experts would provide advice to government. Generally, advice to government is provided in response to a very sort of, a very clear and definite application made by a particular pharmaceutical company. I've asked for something much broader than that, I want the committee to take their time and ensure the advice they provide us is the best possible advice.
But you're right, I asked for it earlier this year. I expect it in the not too distant future. What that means for access, frankly, depends on the nature of the advice that I'll receive, so I can't pre-empt that.
JOURNALIST: Minister, can I also just ask you, the TGA issued a safety alert for these GLP-1 medications over the potential risk of suicidal thoughts and in one case the potential risk of interruption with oral contraception. Some Australians will be really concerned by this. What's the government's message to them?
BUTLER: They're 2 quite different issues. There is one product, Tirzepatide, which raises some questions about the effectiveness of oral contraceptive if the 2 are used together. And really anyone thinking about using Tirzepatide who is taking an oral contraceptive should talk to their health professional about that. The other piece of advice that TGA provided around suicidal ideation and depression though covers all GLP-1s, of the brands that are now well known to the Australian community. The important thing to say about that advice is that it doesn't reflect any substantive change in advice from our medicine experts. Our medicine experts have considered the evidence in this area and have not found any sufficient evidence to draw a causal connection between GLP-1s and any increased risk of suicidal ideation. But they have said, as a matter of good advice, if someone on a GLP-1 does consider that they're experiencing increased symptoms of depression or certainly any suicidal ideation, they should consult with their healthcare professional as a matter of some urgency.
JOURNALIST: Can I just be able to ask a question about CSL? What's been the impact on business of any of the tariffs?
SMITH: So CSL has communicated to the market that we don't expect any significant impact. For influenza vaccines distributed in the US, they're made end-to-end at our North Carolina sister site, so we're protected there.
JOURNALIST: And do you think the government should strike a deal with the US to protect your exports?
SMITH: Look, it's probably not my area to answer that question.
BUTLER: Thanks everyone.