6 May 2020 - Australia lacks the facilities and know-how to make its own pandemic vaccines, a report to government has warned, raising fears we may have to wait years for another country to supply us with a COVID-19 vaccine.

Dr Craig Rayner, the lead author of a report prepared for the Defence Department three years ago, said it should have been a wake-up call for Australia to boost its vaccine and drug development infrastructure before a pandemic broke out.

Dr Rayner’s report, commissioned by the Department of Defence’s Science and Technology agency, analysed Australia’s ability to develop "medical countermeasures" – vaccines and drugs – for threats including pandemics, radiation and chemical and bioweapons.

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