Australia halts its coronavirus vaccine production due to HIV false positives
- Trials for the vaccine produced by UQ and CSL showed it could interfere with HIV diagnoses
- The government has instead secured additional doses of rival vaccines
Production of the inoculation being developed by the University of Queensland (UQ) and vaccine maker CSL was abruptly halted after trials showed it could interfere with HIV diagnosis, the developers said, with the government instead securing additional doses of rival vaccines.
While there were no serious adverse effects seen in the Phase 1 trial of 216 participants, data showed antibodies that had developed interfered with HIV diagnosis and led to false positives on some HIV tests, CSL said.
Given the results, CSL said it had come to a decision with the Australian government to stop Phase 2 and Phase 3 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.
The Australian vaccine could be re-engineered but doing so would take another 12 months.
“While this is a tough decision to take, the urgent need for a vaccine has to be everyone’s priority,” said Paul Young a UQ professor that co-lead the vaccine project.
