The team behind the development of the University of Queensland’s COVID-19 vaccine say they support the decision to abandon the next phase of trials. 

The vaccine was being developed by UQ and CSL but have been called off after several participants returned false positive readings on HIV tests.

The federal government has terminated a deal to buy more than 50 million doses of the potential vaccine.

UQ Professor Paul Young, who is also the co-lead of the project, said the team had been very committed and invested in the vaccine.

“Everybody has poured everything into it,” he told Scott Emerson.

Professor Young said on many fronts it was looking extremely promising but they supported the decision to abandon the next phase.

“In this world today, there is a lot of anti-vax, there’s a lot of vaccine hesitancy and we are completely behind the decision made by the Australian government and CSL not to go forward because of the concern about generating some vaccine hesitancy that might impact on the delivery and uptake on other vaccines as well.”

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