Australia Abandons Local COVID-19 Vaccine After False Positive HIV Results

Clinical trials of a COVID-19 vaccine being developed by the University of Queensland in Australia and biotech firm CSL have been scrapped after participants returned false-positive HIV test results in phase one of the trial.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Friday announced the government made the decision after receiving scientific advice. 

“The University of Queensland vaccine will not be able to proceed based on the scientific advice, and that will no longer feature as part of Australia’s vaccine plan,” he told reporters. 

Morrison stressed that the blow was not a surprise as the government was prepared for some vaccine candidates to fail.

“Our vaccine policy had identified four vaccines that we believed ― based on the scientific advice ― had the potential to go through to the end of stage three trials and be available here in Australia,” he said. “At no stage, can I assure you, that we believed that all four of those vaccines would likely get through that process.”

While there were no serious adverse effects seen in the phase one trial of 216 participants, data showed antibodies that had developed interfered with HIV diagnosis and led to false positives on some HIV tests, biotech company CSL said.

Given the results, CSL said it had come to a decision with the Australian government to stop phase two and phase three trials of the vaccine.

“This outcome highlights the risk of failure associated with early vaccine development, and the rigorous assessment involved in making decisions as to what discoveries advance,” said Andrew Nash, CSL’s chief scientific officer.

CSL, however, agreed to make another 20 million doses of AstraZeneca and Oxford University’s vaccine, on top of the 30 million doses already underway at the request of the government. The first doses are expected in Australia early next year.

“I said at the start of vaccine development, that there are no guarantees,” University of Queensland’s vaccine co-lead, Paul Young, said in a statement released by CSL.

The company said phase one trials of the vaccine would continue and further data analysis would be submitted for peer review in the future.

“We want to ensure that Australians … have full confidence, absolute full confidence that when it gets the tick, they can get the jab, and they can make that decision for themselves and for their families, confidently,” Morrison told reporters.

Despite suffering significant economic hits due to COVID-19, Australian consumer sentiment is climbing again as the country re-emerges from the pandemic faster than most.

Australia’s tally of 28,000 COVID-19 infections is far fewer than in many other developed countries, and with only sporadic cases of the virus now showing up, it has not raced to start vaccinations as in North America and parts of Europe.

With additional files from Reuters.