Australia suspended the manufacture of a domestically produced vaccine against coronavirus after clinical tests showed it could intervene against HIV diagnosis, VOA News reported.
Antibodies produced by the shots being developed by the University of Queensland and biotech company CSL resulted in test participants wrongly testing positive for the pathogen that causes AIDS.
The treatment was a major part of the government's response to the ongoing global health crisis, and Australia had inked an agreement to purchase 51 million doses.
The vaccine by UQ and CLS was one of four experimental treatments contracted by the Australian government. Australia and CLS had decided to halt second and third stage tests, and health officials have instead secured additional doses of rival treatments, such as Novavax.
While the vaccine had triggered a strong immune reaction to COVID-19 without severe adverse effects during a first stage trial involving 216 patients, re-engineering its effectiveness could mean another year of research, health experts said.
Doctors and health authorities said the outcome was a blow to the government's vaccine program and could force the country to procure more doses from international makers.
The ruling to scrap the clinical test should give Australians "great assurance that we're proceeding carefully toward a COVID vaccine," VOA quoted Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison as saying.
Vaccines normally take years of extensive study and trials to develop, but COVID-19 has sent medical experts around the globe scrambling to find a safe and effective treatment.
Australia has also signed a deal for 10 million vaccine shots being developed by Pfizer, with regulatory approval expected by January 2021.
Analysts at JPMorgan disclosed that the CSL deal suspension ended a promising opportunity for the vaccine developer that would have generated $75 million in additional sales. Shares of the company dropped 3.2 percent late Friday, underperforming a moderately weaker broader market.
Australia has ordered around 140 million shots from different pharmaceutical and biotech groups to vaccinate the country's 25 million people, making it among the world's highly stocked nations.
Australia has reported 28,000 COVID-19 infections since the pandemic broke out, and almost 910 people have perished, data by Johns Hopkins University showed.
Despite the ill effects of the virus, consumer sentiment in Australia is rising again as the country re-surfaces from the crisis faster than most.
Australia is set to kick off immunizations in March next year and expects to vaccinate its entire population by the end of 2020.
