Sydney, December 11: The Australian government on Friday discontinued the manufacturing of country made COVID-19 vaccine after its trials showed that the vaccine could interfere with HIV diagnosis. The vaccine was being jointly developed by the University of Queensland (UQ) and biotech firm CSL. "Antibodies generated by the COVID-19 vaccine were found to lead to some false positive HIV test results," the makers said, as per a report by Reuters. India's COVID-19 Vaccine Status Tracker: A Look at SII, Bharat Biotech, Other Leading Candidates and Expected Dates of Launch.

The vaccine's effect on HIV diagnosis was seen in the first phase of human trials it self. CSL and the Australian government has therefore decided to stop further trials of the COVID-19 vaccine. "While the vaccine had elicited a “robust” immune response to the novel SARS-COV-2 virus without serious adverse effects in a Phase 1 trial with 216 participants, re-engineering a fix could take another 12 months," said its manufacturer. US FDA Ready to Okay Pfizer-BioNTech's COVID-19 Vaccine, Epic Vaccination Drive to Begin.

“While this is a tough decision to take, the urgent need for a vaccine has to be everyone’s priority,” UQ professor Paul Young told Reuters. The government is now looking for securing COVID-19 vaccine from the global players. Australia also has a contract for 10 Million doses of a vaccine being developed by Pfizer, with regulatory approval expected by January 2021.

As per the reports, CSL had a contract to produce 51 Million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine in collaboration with UQ. However, it will now produce an extra 20 million doses of the Oxford vaccine being developed with Britain’s AstraZeneca, taking the total to 53 million.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Dec 11, 2020 08:39 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).