Health Minister Supports Having ‘As Many COVID Vaccines on the Market as Possible’

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Australian Health Minister Mark Butler has revealed Australia wants to see as many COVID-19 vaccines on the market as possible.

The minister expressed this goal under questioning from “Teal” Independent MP Monique Ryan about vaccine access and medicine shortages.

Dr. Ryan was concerned about her constituents not being able to access the Novavax and Shingrix vaccines, along with other medicines they “need and deserve.”

This comes after Novavax pulled its application for Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) registration in Australia recently.

Mr. Butler noted the Novavax original vaccine was finally approved and made available a couple of years ago in Australia.

“Take up was pretty low and it dropped off very quickly. The original vaccine was withdrawn from the market more than 12 months ago in Australia because essentially Novavax stopped making it,” Mr. Butler said told Parliament on June 3 (pdf).

Mr. Butler added the Omicron version of the vaccine has been considered by TGA for registration in Australia over some time.

“I’m advised a few weeks ago Novavax decided to withdraw that application for registration. I encouraged Novavax to continue working with the TGA,” he said.

“We would like to see as many COVID vaccines on the market as possible but, ultimately, that is a matter for the company.”

With regard to the Shingrix vaccine for the prevention of shingles, Mr. Butler said Australia has the most comprehensive shingles vaccine program in the world.

“The take up by older Australians was phenomenal and about 40 percent higher than we projected using the usual forecasting models. As a result, we negotiated the supply of an additional 750,000 doses of the Shingrix vaccine, which has already been delivered over recent weeks to all of the state and territory governments,” the minister said.

“That should be hitting vaccination points, GP surgeries, and pharmacies pretty much as we speak, and we have another 400,000 as well being delivered in May and June, so we hope that some of those supply issues should be resolved.”

Medicine Shortage Concern

Dr. Ryan also raised concerns there are more than 400 medications on the TGA medicine shortage list including blood thinners, medications for glaucoma, and HRT patches.

The TGA Medicine shortage reports database shows there are currently 423 medicine shortages in Australia.

Mr. Butler explained countries around the world in the global market are facing challenges with the supply of “really important medicines.”

“The TGA works with those sponsors to try and resolve those supply concerns. We work with doctors and pharmacies where possible to arrange alternatives to a medicine that might be in global supply shortage. We do that as much as we can. The number of medicines in short supply now is around 400, as the member says,” the health minister said.

“Before COVID, when the mandatory reporting regime started in 2019, it was in the order of 300 to 400, so it’s certainly a little higher but not phenomenally higher. But I’m still very concerned about this.”

Health Minister in Geneva For WHO Pandemic Meeting

Meanwhile, Mr. Butler told the World Health Assembly in Geneva on May 28 Australia remains “fully committed to completing the WHO pandemic agreement.”

Australia drafted a resolution, requesting the WHO director general to convene a special session of the World Health Assembly before the end of 2024 to consider an updated Intergovernmental Negotiating Body Draft (pdf).

“Now is the time to redouble our efforts to resolve the remaining challenges and deliver on this historic opportunity to achieve better health outcomes for all in responding to future pandemics and public health emergencies,” Mr. Butler said in Geneva.

“Australia stands ready to deliver on this ambition. We cannot afford to fail.”

However, 14 Australian politicians recently voiced opposition to Australia signing up to a global pandemic treaty in a letter to the prime minister on May 14.

It was signed by politicians from the Coalition, One Nation, and United Australia Party, including Senators Alex Antic, Malcolm Roberts, and Ralph Babet.

“The WHO has demonstrated throughout the COVID period that its global approach to providing recommendations to respond to actual or perceived public health emergencies consistently resulted in more damage than was prevented and has caused untold losses both economically and socially,” the letter said.

“We have received a large volume of correspondence from Australians who are rightly concerned about the IHR [International Health Regulations] amendments and the WHO Pandemic Treaty, and we share those concerns.”

The World Health Organisation announced on June 1 that its 194 member countries made concrete commitments to completing negotiations on a global pandemic agreement within a year. 

This will either be at the World Health Assembly in 2025, or at a special session of the health assembly in 2024.

Further, the assembly also agreed to amendments (pdf) to the International Health Regulations 2005.

These amendments include introducing a definition of pandemic emergency, committing to “solidarity and equity,” and creating a national IHR authority to coordinate implementation of the regulations within and among countries.

Vaccine Funding in the Federal Budget

Meanwhile, the federal government announced $631.1 million (US$419 million) over four years from 2024 to 2025 to support ongoing access to vaccines.

This includes $490 million over five years from 2024 to 2025 to continue the national COVID-19 vaccine program (pdf).

Over $82 million will be provided from 2025 to 2026 to ensure ongoing joint responsibility with states and territories for vaccination programs.

In addition, $57.7 million over four years will be allocated to broaden the eligibility of Shingrix for the prevention of shingles.

A further $107.4 million will be provided on an ongoing basis according to the government to fund the COVID vaccines.