IDT Australia progresses talks to provide manufacturing capabilities for Australian COVID-19 vaccine candidate

IDT Australia Limited (ASX:IDT) is in discussions to provide manufacturing services and help develop Australia’s first local mRNA COVID-19 vaccine candidate. The ASX-lister is progressing talks to provide its capabilities with the Victorian Government, mRNA Victoria and Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Science (MIPS). While no agreement has been reached as of yet, IDT promises to provide further updates as more information comes to hand. Getting behind “landmark commitment” IDT Australia CEO Dr David Sparling said: “IDT is progressing discussions to put forward its cGMP manufacturing facilities and capabilities to get behind the Victorian Government’s landmark commitment and initiative to develop an mRNA manufacturing capability, as we believe it will build upon the existing scientific and medical strengths in Victoria and will deliver essential capabilities for Australia.” “Manufacturing clinic-ready vaccine candidates coming out of world-class research such as Professor Pouton’s at Monash University allows IDT to develop the critical skills and infrastructure at a sovereign cGMP manufacturing site here in Australia. “These capabilities will then be locally available for clinical and commercial applications for COVID-19 as well as a broad range of other diseases.” A new type of vaccine IDT could be instrumental in creating a new type of vaccine to protect against infectious diseases on Australian soil. The messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine candidates work by teaching the body’s cells how to make a protein that triggers an immune response, combatting COVID-19. mRNA vaccines differ from conventional candidates. They don’t use a live virus sample, and they are broken down by cells after they are read by the body. Currently, Australians are receiving the Pfizer/BioNTech or AstraZeneca vaccines to protect against COVID-19. MIPS professor Colin Pouton said: “Preclinical evaluation of our mRNA vaccine has progressed well and we are now keen to partner with an experienced pharmaceutical manufacturer to produce a product for clinical evaluation. “We look forward to working with IDT to establish mRNA vaccine manufacturing capability in Australia”.