LISA MILLAR:
Well, Australia's medical regulator has granted provisional approval of the Moderna vaccine for people over the age of 18. The Federal Government has ordered a total of 25 million doses of the mRNA shot, with 10 million more due to arrive before the end of this year.
MICHAEL ROWLAND:
Which is great news for the vaccine rollout. The head of the Therapeutic Goods Administration, John Skerritt, joins us now from Canberra. Professor Skerritt, good morning to you.
JOHN SKERRITT:
Yes. Good morning, Michael.
MICHAEL ROWLAND:
As Norman Swan was just telling us, Moderna, this is a pretty effective vaccine, isn't it?
JOHN SKERRITT:
Yes, it's impressive. And what's also impressive is that some of the studies that have followed its effectiveness six months out have shown that there's no real significant decline. And so, six months out, 93 per cent protection from catching COVID. And just, if not more importantly, 98 per cent to 100 per cent protection from hospitalisation and death.
MICHAEL ROWLAND:
Okay. So, is it pretty much similar to Pfizer? It's also one of these mRNA vaccines.
JOHN SKERRITT:
It is. It actually has the advantage that it can be shipped at normal domestic freezer temperatures rather than ultra cold. But a lot of characteristics are the same. It will be useful, not only for initial vaccinations, but also as a booster. So I've had my two AstraZeneca shots, but it's quite likely next year I'll need a booster, and that booster would probably be the Pfizer or Moderna shot.
MICHAEL ROWLAND:
Okay. So that could be the stage, mixing the vaccines in terms of booster shots?
JOHN SKERRITT:
Well, while the work on mixing is being looked at, it's likely that it'll especially come into use when boosters are required. We just don't know how often and the gap in time between boosters, Mike.
MICHAEL ROWLAND:
Okay. Yeah. So that- the studies are still going on in terms of mixing shots. Say, you know, I had my first dose, AZ, in terms of getting a second dose being Pfizer or Moderna - the jury's still out on that front?
JOHN SKERRITT:
Yeah, the studies are still going on. There's some work looking at blood samples and so forth that have been really positive. But the actual work on clinical protection on the disease is still going on.
MICHAEL ROWLAND:
Okay. Now, tell us about the trial Moderna is floating to test its vaccine for really young children in Australia. How likely is that to happen?
JOHN SKERRITT:
Well, we haven't had a notification that they want to use Australia as a trial site. They've talked about looking at a number of countries. We were on a list. And many of the major companies are now looking at trials on kids down to six months old. Now clearly, as soon as you vaccinate children or teenagers, safety becomes paramount. And we will obviously be working with them if they want to use Australia as a site, or alternatively if they do trials in the US and then subsequently they come to us wanting to register the vaccine for young children in Australia.
MICHAEL ROWLAND:
Okay. So our suite of vaccines now is Pfizer, AZ obviously, now Moderna. So Novavax is next on the list. How far is that away?
JOHN SKERRITT:
It's coming. They are still working on manufacture [audio skips] large scale up. And it will be September, perhaps into early October, before they give us the rest of the data. It's important to know that we are able to look at data as it comes in. So we've already looked at a lot of Novavax data and it looks good. But the critical issue is manufacturing enough to meet all the demand. That's why the announcement of Moderna was so important, but we do expect Novavax to come along in the months to come.
MICHAEL ROWLAND:
Okay, which will be welcome news as well. John Skerritt in Canberra, thank you so much for joining us this morning.
JOHN SKERRITT:
Thank you, Mike.
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