EDWINA BARTHOLOMEW:
Tighter export controls for COVID vaccines have been discussed at the European round table. Already, one shipment of 250,000 AstraZeneca vaccines destined for Australia has been block by Italy, and more restrictions could prevent a further 3.8 million doses arriving from overseas. Chief Medical Professor, Chief Medical Professor, Paul Kelly, joins us now. Morning to you, Professor. Should we be worried about this potential export controlled by the EU?
PAUL KELLY:
Good morning.
EDWINA BARTHOLOMEW:
How will it be impacting our rollout over the next few months?
PAUL KELLY:
Well, we made an important decision last year, in the middle of the year, to get our own sovereign supply of locally developed vaccine here in Australia, and so that’s now, as of this week, got the tick from TGA and is rolling out across the country right now, going to GP surgeries, state and territory clinics. So, that will help. Of course, we’re disappointed in the European Union decision and we’re using all our diplomatic channels to reverse that decision, but it has, it has slowed down our vaccine rollout up to now. We were expecting 3.8 million doses of AstraZeneca from Europe, we’ve only received 700,000, so that- you can see why that’s caused issues up to now. But we have that local supply, and that’s what we are going to be using.
EDWINA BARTHOLOMEW:
So, the target for CSL is to produce 50 million doses. Do we even need to be exporting- importing, rather, these doses in from Europe at all?
PAUL KELLY:
Well, the- We have a, a contract with AstraZeneca for 53.8, of which 3.8 was from overseas – that was to be delivered this year. So, we will have plenty, we don't at the moment because that’s just starting, the local supply. So, we’ll go ahead with the vaccine we have. We’re still receiving the Pfizer doses every week, they’ve been spot on time with those vaccines and we’re hoping that that will continue. But in the meantime, we have our local supply and that’s the one thing Australians can be guaranteed of, is that the vaccines produced here in Australia are now rolling out to Australians and will be available next week in many places.
EDWINA BARTHOLOMEW:
Alright. Professor Paul Kelly, thank you for your time. We appreciate it’s very busy at the moment.
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