Updated on: 2020-04-02
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| Q1A. What arrangements, if any, do you have in place to ensure scientific advice informs national policy and decision making in relation to Covid-19? | Health policy development and decision making in Australia is governed by the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee (https://www.health.gov.au/committees-and...), which is comprised of the Chief Health Officers of each state and territory and chaired by the Chief Medical Officer of the Australian Government Department of Health. In turn, the AHPPC is advised by its expert standing committees specialising in laboratory testing and public health, among other specialist health related subjects. Advice from the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), the Australian regulator of medicines and medical devices, is provided on a regular basis to the Department of Health and Department of Industry, Science, energy and Resources. |
| Q1B. In what ways, if any, are you coordinating on Covid-19 STI responses at international level? | The Australian Government Department of Health contains the National Incident Room, which is a designated National Focal Point under the International Health Regulations 2005 (IHR) (https://www.who.int/ihr/publications/978...) . The National Incident Room has been sharing information on Australian testing protocols and response measures through the IHR mechanism to assist with the consideration and development of international capacity building for COVID-19 response. Australia’s Chief Scientist, Dr Alan Finkel, has been taking part in regular teleconferences with international Chief Scientific Advisers to share information and coordinate actions as required. The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) participates in regular teleconferences and shares information under existing confidential sharing arrangements with comparable overseas regulators including USFDA, Health Canada, UK MHRA, and WHO. National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) funds a Centre of Research Excellence dedicated to emergency infectious disease response – The Australian Partnership for Preparedness Research on Infectious Disease Emergencies (APPRISE) which involves many of Australia’s leading infectious disease researchers, epidemiologists, clinicians etc. APPRISE researchers are well integrated into national committees and international research collaborations and networks that are important in a major infectious disease outbreak. See https://www.apprise.org.au/ NHMRC is also a member of the Global Research Collaboration for Infectious Disease Preparedness (GloPID-R), an international network of major research funding organizations which invest in research capacity and capabilities to support the rapid initiation of scientific research in case of an outbreak. |
| Q2.Do you have dedicated arrangements in place for communicating science advice and for refuting misleading information to the public on Covid-19? | The Australian Government Department of Health has a COVID-19 communications strategy which supports the provision of evidence based advice to the public on an ongoing basis. Communication methods include but are not limited to: a web-based resource hub (https://www.health.gov.au/resources/coll...) , social media posts and targeted advertisements, paid broadcasts on television, and consistent public messages disseminated by senior Australian Government representatives. In particular, there is a ‘frequently asked questions’ (https://www.health.gov.au/resources/publ...) resource that is updated frequently to help inform the Australian community and refute misleading information. The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) is publishing media releases, safety advisories and other information on its website to refute misleading information, where required. These statements are also promoted via our social media channels including Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram. Relevant statements include: TGA issues warning about illegal advertising relating to COVID-19 https://www.tga.gov.au/media-release/tga... Warning about products claiming to treat or prevent the novel coronavirus https://www.tga.gov.au/media-release/war... New restrictions on prescribing hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19 https://www.tga.gov.au/alert/new-restric... No evidence to support intravenous high-dose vitamin C in the management of COVID-19 https://www.tga.gov.au/alert/no-evidence... No evidence to support claims ibuprofen worsens COVID-19 symptoms https://www.tga.gov.au/alert/no-evidence... OECD Secretariat additions (30 March 2020): The Australian Government has developed a website (https://www.australia.gov.au/) to provide the latest Coronavirus news, updates and advice from government agencies across Australia, and implemented a WhatsApp chat. The government also has created an official government “Coronavirus Australia” app allowing citizens to be up to date with the official information and advice. |
| Q3. What new STI policy measures, if any, is your country taking to respond specifically to the Covid-19 crisis? | The Public Health Laboratory Network (PHLN), a standing committee of the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee (AHPPC), is Australia’s leading network of expert microbiologists. This group is comprised of public health laboratory representatives from each state and territory of Australia. They meet weekly to provide advice, share information and support other laboratories, such as hospital, community and private pathology providers, when issues arise. So far, the Australian Government has funded or will fund the following R&D initiatives in response to the COVID-19 pandemic: - $15 million to fast-track research into treatments from the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) (https://www.health.gov.au/ministers/the-...) via three open competitive grant opportunities: o $8 million to identify and develop antiviral therapies for people infected with COVID-19 ($3 million will initially be provided to test up to 10 antiviral therapies to test proof of concept; a further $5 million then available for rapid advancement of the most promising candidates). o $5 million for clinical trials to better treat and manage COVID-19 patients with severe acute respiratory distress. o $2 million to support research into development of a vaccine to protect against novel coronavirus (COVID-19). - More than $2.6 million in cutting-edge diagnostics research at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity. (https://www.health.gov.au/ministers/the-...) On 22 March 2020, a funding injection of up to $17 million (https://stories.uq.edu.au/news/2020/17m-...) was announced for vital University of Queensland research that could help cut the timeline for an effective vaccine for COVID-19 by six months: • the Queensland Government will allocate $10 million • the Australian Government has pledged $3 million to the project led by UQ’s School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences. • the Paul Ramsay Foundation has provided a grant of $3.5 million to the University of Queensland, conditional upon the University of Queensland securing another $6.5 million to reach a total of $20 million from government and other sources. The Australian Government will invest $30 million for COVID–19 research to enable Australian researchers to contribute to global efforts to control the outbreak. Three research areas, in line with the priorities agreed at the recent Coronavirus Research Roundtable, are vaccine development, anti-viral development and respiratory medicine research The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) is fast tracking (i.e. accelerating) regulatory assessment for applications for a therapeutic good related to COVID-19. In some cases, for example point of care tests, due to limited information at the time of application, regulatory approval is granted, with strict conditions that follow-up data and studies including stability shelf-life is provided to the TGA. In addition, a number of exemptions for complying with normal regulatory processes and approvals are in place to facilitate faster access and supply for some tests and PPE medical devices. • Therapeutic Goods (Medical Devices—Accredited Pathology Laboratories) (COVID-19 Emergency) Exemption 2020 (F2020N00032);(https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/F2020N00032/Download) and • Therapeutic Goods (Medical Devices—Face Masks and Other Articles) (COVID-19 Emergency) Exemption 2020 (F2020N00033).(https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/F2020N00033/Download) See: https://www.tga.gov.au/legal-supply-covi... The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) funds a Centre of Research Excellence dedicated to emergency pandemic response – the Australian Partnership for Preparedness Research on Infectious Disease Emergencies (APPRISE). Funding for this network is AUD$5 million over 5 years from 2016 to 2021 (see: https://www.apprise.org.au/). APPRISE is supporting 16 urgent research projects covering areas such as diagnostics, treatment and communication in response to COVID-19. It is joining forces with the NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence in Emerging Infectious Diseases (CREID), to support the national collaborative projects designed to fill areas of critical research need and improve Australia’s emergency response to COVID-19. |
| Q4A. At national level, what mechanisms are you developing or relying upon to bring together different STI actors (researchers, industry, government, health sector, foundations, etc.) to effectively collaborate on responses to Covid-19? | The Australian Government draws on the expertise of the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee (AHPPC), Public Health Laboratory Network (PHLN) and the Communicable Diseases Network Australia (CDNA), through its established decision making governance mechanism. These committees can draw on academic, industry and other stakeholder expertise to inform response measures for COVID-19 and other health emergencies of national concern. The Emergency Response Plan for Communicable Disease Incidents of National Significance: National Arrangements (National CD Plan) (https://www1.health.gov.au/internet/main...) and the National Emergency Response Plan for Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) (https://www.health.gov.au/resources/publ...) outline the response roles and responsibilities of Federal, state, territory and local governments, including engagement with different STI actors, to collaborate on responses to COVID-19. The Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) is a specific initiative that engages STI organisations. The MRFF is a research fund set up by the Australian Government in 2015 that provides funding to four overall research themes, focused on patients, researchers, research missions and research translation. There are currently three MRFF grant opportunities open for COVID-19 related activities. |
| Q4B. At international level, what mechanisms are you developing or relying upon to bring together different STI actors (researchers, industry, government, health sector, foundations, etc.) to effectively collaborate on responses to Covid-19? | The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) is Australia’s national science research agency. CSIRO has received funding from the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), a global group that aims to speed up the development of vaccines and cut short the COVID-19 pandemic. CSIRO will receive vaccine candidates agreed by CEPI and begin testing of new potential vaccines and therapeutics to see if they work and are safe. The vaccine developments themselves are being partially funded by CEPI in laboratories around the world including Australia. CSIRO is working closely with the University of Queensland and the Doherty Institute. CSIRO is also part of a separate consortium established with the University of Queensland in 2019 to rapidly develop vaccines. The consortium was established to create a rapid response pipeline to develop and test new vaccines. The consortium has been tasked by CEPI to develop a vaccine platform for nCoV-2019 in collaboration with CSIRO. |
| Q5. What novel approaches, if any, is your country using to address the coronavirus crisis (e.g. use of machine learning, open science initiatives boosting access and sharing of data and research results, development and use of prediction models, etc.)? | The Australian Government is investing more than $2.6 million in cutting-edge diagnostics research by the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, this will be directed to four strategies, including: • A 'one-step' nucleic acid detection, which combines the current extraction of the virus from the patient sample and detection step into one. By avoiding the separate extraction of genetic material, this test saves substantially on critical lab consumables and is also very rapid, with the potential to reduce test turnaround times. • The development of new testing protocols to enable more individuals to be tested simultaneously, while minimising the number of consumables used and maintain the current turnaround times. • Rapidly assessing, trialing, and where relevant, validating new diagnostic test kits to ensure they are of the highest quality. • Assessing how and when to use serology testing. Serology testing could assist with identification of asymptomatic infection, retrospective diagnosis of individuals who have recovered from infection and determining the extent of infection in a population. |
| Q6A. What impact on the STI system do you anticipate in the short-, medium- and long-term, and what measures are you implementing to address those? | Over recent weeks, requests for COVID-19 testing have increased, as have demands on pathology supplies. It is expected that similar pressures are occurring worldwide due to the increased demand for testing. However, there are sufficient stocks within the Australian laboratory system to meet the current demand. The Australian Government is working closely with public and private laboratories, as well as manufacturers, to secure pathology supplies so that testing capacity can be sustained throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. |
| Q6B. Is support of the STI system part of planned stimulus packages aimed at supporting the economy? | The Australian Government is working closely with laboratories to ensure that Australia maintains the capacity and capability to test for COVID-19. |
| Q7. Is there anything else regarding the STI policy response to Covid-19 in your country you would like to mention? | [Left blank] |