MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 26th April, 2021) Australian scientists from the University of Queensland continue re-engineering a domestic COVID-19 vaccine after stopping clinical trials in late 2020 over an incident with false positive HIV tests among trial participants, media reported.
In December, the University of Queensland, working in partnership with Australian global biotech company CSL, abandoned the clinical trials of the vaccine after several trial participants returned false positive HIV test results. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison then said that the government decided to terminate purchasing the vaccine amid fears that the situation would severely damage the Australian public's confidence in the COVID-19 vaccination program.
According to the ABC news broadcaster, the scientists are working on two "promising candidates" of the vaccine, however, there is no set timeline for completion of this work. The current version of the vaccine is based on molecular clamp technology.
The previous Australian vaccine candidate used a protein and adjuvant platform, containing the COVID-19 spike protein and a component taken from the human immunodeficiency virus, known as HIV, that is not able to infect people or replicate.
The vaccine project of the University of Queensland is still in its research and development phase, which means it needs to run through animal trials and clinical trials.
