about 720,000 a week in late last month, it has once again nosedived to 280,000 doses this week.
According to CSL, the manufacturing of an unrelated antivenom is what necessarily interrupted work at its facility and resulted in the slowdown in the production of vaccines. The government has been informed regarding the antivenom work, the biotechnology company said.
When inquired about the inconsistency between the government’s projections and the actual output, the Health Department noted that it intends to release vaccines from its second dose contingency.
“These allocations are calculated by using forecast supply figures provided to the commonwealth by the vaccine manufacturers, as well as stock on hand information, including the supply of second doses which has been held in contingency by the commonwealth and is being subsequently supplied to cohorts in this period, in line with the recommended dose interval,” a spokesperson for the department said. “The commonwealth does not anticipate any difficulties in supply of locally produced AstraZeneca vaccine.”
Regarding the production of antivenom, a spokesperson for the government noted that it was necessary to ensure stock levels for these lifesaving products are maintained. “While these activities are undertaken on the fill and finish line at Seqirus, production of bulk vaccine continued at our CSL Behring site, and we expect volumes to ramp-up to around a million doses per week from the second half of July,” the spokesperson added.
