CSL signs agreement to deliver Covid vaccine

Biotechnology giant CSL has signed a final agreement with the federal government to supply 51 million doses of a University of Queensland-CSL vaccine should the drug be proven effective and safe in clinical trials.

CSL’s vaccine subsidiary, Seqirus signed the agreement covering the vaccine candidate V451 and will receive an upfront payment from Canberra.

The payment supports clinical and technical work CSL is performing to test the vaccine and secures for the Commonwealth onshore production and a supply of the vaccine.

The deal was agreed to in principle last month and today CSL did not reveal the value of the payment from the government.

CSL has also entered into agreements with AstraZeneca to produce 30 million doses of a vaccine being developed by Oxford University should it prove successful in trials.

CSL said: “The two vaccines work through different approaches, but can leverage many facets of the same manufacturing platform used by CSL to produce recombinant proteins.

“CSL has been working at pace to respond to the Covid-19 pandemic and has invested significant resources in…rapid development and large-scale manufacture.”

The Melbourne company said large scale Phase 2b/3 clinical trials of V451 were planned to begin at 100 sites in December with a goal of completion by March, 2021.

“We are committed to demonstrating the vaccine is safe and effective prior to availability in the market.”

Picture: University of Queensland

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