@Affable
Novavax update
transcript from interview on 3aw today - Hopefully it will be here soon for you so you can have some freedom - Hope you are coping ok in the meanwhile.
NEIL MITCHELL:
Good. I'm getting a lot of messages from young men concerned about mRNA vaccines, wanting to- Anxious wants to know what's happening with Novavax. Where does Australia stand with Novavax?
GREG HUNT:
Sure. So I actually had a meeting with Novavax Australian and international team yesterday.
I'm very hopeful that there may be the first international approval over the course of the next week, and that Australia is in a very similar timeframe. I'm hopeful that we might see some positive news before Christmas.
The TGA, our medical regulator, is an independent body, the Therapeutic Goods Administration. But at this stage, my advice is that it’s progressing well.
What does that mean? It means that we would have the first of the Novavax subject to the TGA and then Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation, or ATAGI, approval, those two green lights in January.
And still to be determined. And they're independent regulators and advisory body, but if they give two green lights, then the January rollout is the expectation.
And there is a sizable group of people, we think, whether it's one per cent, whether it's more than that, that are waiting for Novavax.
I think that direction is positive. Paul Kelly’s advice this morning, Chief Medical Officer, the best vaccine is the one you can get. Don’t wait, but nevertheless we recognise the reality of it, and that will add to the vaccination rate.
NEIL MITCHELL:
Could Novavax be used as a booster?
GREG HUNT:
Potentially, and that was what was the advice yesterday, and that was what Paul said today.
There’s no theoretical barrier to it, but they would need to apply for that. And I did encourage the international board, or senior leadership of Novavax to put in an application if they believe that there’s strong evidence, and that would be assessed in Australia.
So it's always been presumed that what's called a protein vaccine, think of it as three vaccines. Protein, Novavax; viral vector, which is AstraZeneca; and then the MRNA, Pfizer and Moderna, that the protein could make a very good booster.