Our investment
The Australian Government has invested a total of over $17 billion in Australia’s vaccine and COVID-19 treatment supply as part of the COVID-19 Health response.
We are rolling out several approved vaccines. Learn more about the approval process.
We have supply agreements in place for the following vaccines. The contract documents/supply agreements themselves are not appropriate for release as they contain confidential and commercially sensitive information.
Comirnaty (Pfizer), Spikevax (Moderna), Vaxzevria (AstraZeneca) and Nuvaxovid (Novavax) are TGA-approved and available now.
Comirnaty (Pfizer)
As part of Australia’s Vaccine and Treatment Strategy, the Australian Government has made several agreements to purchase doses of the Pfizer vaccine. This vaccine is manufactured overseas.
The TGA provisionally approved the Pfizer vaccine for use in Australia on 25 January 2021.
Doses for Australia
- In September 2021, the Australian Government announced a dose sharing partnership with the UK. Under this agreement Australia receives 4 million Pfizer doses from the UK in September 2021. We will send 4 million doses back to the UK in late 2021.
- In August 2021, the Australian Government announced a dose swap deal with Singapore. Australia gained access to 500,000 Singaporean Pfizer doses to boost the vaccine program in September 2021, and returned 500,000 Pfizer doses to Singapore in November 2021.
- In August 2021, the Australian Government bought 1 million Pfizer doses from the Republic of Poland.
- In July 2021, the Australian Government announced the purchase of 85 million more Pfizer doses. These were planned to be booster doses, ensuring Australia’s supply of mRNA vaccines in 2022 and 2023.
- In May 2021, the Australian Government purchased 500,000 Pfizer doses through the COVAX Facility.
- In April 2021, the Australian Government ordered a further 20 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine.
- In February 2021, Australia ordered an extra 10 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine.
- In November 2020, the Australian Government agreed to buy 10 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine.
Spikevax (Moderna)
The Moderna vaccine is another mRNA vaccine, similar to Pfizer. The TGA provisionally approved the Moderna vaccine for use in Australia on 9 August 2021.
Doses for Australia
We have a contract for 25 million doses:
- 10 million doses of the current formulation, available in late 2021
- 15 million doses of variant-specific versions to address longer-term immunity and viral variants, available in 2022.
In September 2021, the Australian Government purchased an additional one million Moderna doses from European Union member states.
The Australian Government has entered into a ten-year partnership with Moderna and the Victorian Government that will see Moderna build an mRNA vaccine manufacturing facility at Monash University Victoria.
Vaxzevria (AstraZeneca)
Biopharmaceutical company CSL manufactures the AstraZeneca vaccine in Australia. The TGA provisionally approved the AstraZeneca vaccine for use in Australia on 15 February 2021.
Doses for Australia
The Australian Government has secured 53.8 million doses of this vaccine:
- 3.8 million doses imported from overseas, which arrived on 28 February 2021.
- 50 million doses manufactured in Australia.
Novavax
The TGA has provisionally approved the Novavax COVID-19 vaccine for use in Australia.
The Novavax vaccine is one of 9 supported by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, a global partnership to accelerate vaccine development.
See our fact sheet on Novavax.
COVAX
The Australian Government has joined the COVAX Facility as part of a global effort to support rapid, fair and equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines.
The COVAX Facility is a global risk-sharing mechanism for pooled procurement and equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines. COVAX is a collaboration between CEPI, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, and the World Health Organization (WHO) with UNICEF.
Other agreements
The Australian Government supported the University of Queensland’s research into a possible COVID-19 vaccine. This vaccine completed Phase 1 clinical trials, but did not proceed to Phase 2/3.