Australia’s vaccine agreements

Our investment

The Australian Government has invested over $8 billion in the national COVID-19 vaccine rollout. We have also invested over $350 million in vaccine research and development. 

We are rolling out several approved vaccines. Learn more about the approval process. 

We have supply agreements in place for the following vaccines. The contract documents/supply agreements themselves are not appropriate for release as they contain confidential and commercially sensitive information.

Comirnaty (Pfizer), Spikevax (Moderna) and Vaxzevria (AstraZeneca) are TGA-approved and available now. 

Comirnaty (Pfizer)

As part of Australia’s Vaccine and Treatment Strategy, the Australian Government has made several agreements to purchase doses of the Pfizer vaccine. This vaccine is manufactured overseas.

The TGA provisionally approved the Pfizer vaccine for use in Australia on 25 January 2021.

Doses for Australia

• In November 2020, the Australian Government agreed to buy 10 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine. Read the Minister for Health’s November 2020 statement on the Pfizer vaccine agreement. 
• In February 2021, Australia ordered an extra 10 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine. Read the Minister for Health’s February 2021 statement.
• In April 2021, the Australian Government ordered a further 20 million doses of Pfizer vaccines. Read the Prime Minister's press conference. 
• In July 2021, the Australian Government announced the purchase of 85 million more doses. These were planned to be booster doses, ensuring Australia’s supply of mRNA vaccines in 2022 and 2023. Read the Prime Minister’s media release about booster doses.
• In August 2021, the Australian Government bought 1 million doses from the Republic of Poland. Read the Prime Minister’s media release about the agreement with Poland.
• In August 2021, the Australian Government announced a dose swap deal with Singapore. Australia gained access to 500,000 Singaporean doses to boost the vaccine program in September 2021, and will supply 500,000 Pfizer doses to Singapore in December 2021. Read the Prime Minister’s media release on the Singapore swap.
• In September 2021, the Australian Government announced a dose sharing partnership with the UK. Under this agreement Australia receives 4 million Pfizer doses from the UK in September 2021. We will send 4 million doses back to the UK in late 2021. Read the Prime Minister’s media release on the UK partnership.

Spikevax (Moderna)

The Moderna vaccine is another mRNA vaccine, similar to Pfizer. The TGA provisionally approved the Moderna vaccine for use in Australia on 9 August 2021.

Adding the Moderna vaccine to our rollout:

• diversifies Australia's supply of COVID-19 vaccines
• provides more flexibility for the national vaccine rollout, including booster doses
• secures early access to possible vaccinations for emerging COVID-19 variants of concern circulating around the world.

The Moderna vaccine has been approved by leading regulatory authorities across the world. It is being used successfully in the United Kingdom, Canada, the European Union, the United States and Singapore.

Doses for Australia

We have a contract for 25 million doses:

• 10 million doses of the current formulation, available in late 2021
• 15 million doses of variant-specific versions to address longer-term immunity and viral variants, available in the first half of 2022.

The Australian Government and the company Moderna are discussing the possibility of establishing a manufacturing facility in Australia for mRNA vaccines.

Moderna is developing booster vaccines to help protect against COVID-19 variants. It is conducting ongoing trials to evaluate a 'multivalent vaccine' capable of addressing multiple variants of concern.

See the Minister for Health's May media release on the Moderna agreement. 

Vaxzevria (AstraZeneca)

Biopharmaceutical company CSL manufactures the AstraZeneca vaccine in Australia. The TGA provisionally approved the AstraZeneca vaccine for use in Australia on 15 February 2021.

Doses for Australia

We have secured 53.8 million doses of this vaccine:

• 3.8 million doses imported from overseas, which arrived on 28 February 2021.
• 50 million doses manufactured in Australia. 

Currently the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine is the only vaccine that we can manufacture in Australia. Distribution of the locally made doses is ongoing. 

Novavax

The TGA is evaluating a protein vaccine developed by Novavax. It is not yet available in Australia. 

Doses for Australia

If the TGA approves this vaccine for use in Australia, we expect 51 million doses will be available in late 2021. This is enough doses to cover Australia’s whole population.

Doses for Australia may be manufactured in several locations across Europe. The Novavax vaccine is one of 9 supported by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, a global partnership to accelerate vaccine development.

See our fact sheet on Novavax. 

COVAX 

The Australian Government has joined the COVAX Facility as part of a global effort to support rapid, fair and equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines.

COVAX is a collaboration between CEPI, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, and the World Health Organization (WHO) with UNICEF. Being part of it enables us to buy vaccine doses for Australia via the COVAX Facility as they become available.

Over 90 upper-income countries around the world have entered into the COVAX Facility as self-financing countries. A further 92 lower-income countries are eligible for support from it. Australia’s participation means COVAX can invest in a diverse portfolio of vaccines and support manufacturers.

COVAX is mobilising 2 billion doses for the world to address the acute phase of the pandemic. It began distributing in February 2021 and expects to reach 2 billion doses in the first quarter of 2022. It has already delivered 40 million doses to 139 countries in just 6 months, including most of Australia’s neighbours in the Pacific and Southeast Asia.

Australia’s commitments to the COVAX Facility

The Government has made 3 financial contributions to Gavi’s COVAX Facility for the supply of COVID-19 vaccines:

• An upfront payment of $123.2 million to allow the purchase of over 25 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines for the Australian population. This is enough for 50% of the population to receive 2 doses.
• On 26 August 2020, Australia announced an investment of $80 million to the Advanced Market Commitment (AMC) of the COVAX Facility
• On 3 June 2021, Australia contributed another $50 million, making a total of $130 million to the COVAX AMC.

Doses for Australia

Before vaccines become available, they must be approved for use in Australia. This includes the TGA assessment and approval processes for safety, quality and effectiveness. The TGA is also actively monitoring COVID-19 vaccine development in Australia and around the world.

Supporting our region

Safe and effective vaccines will play a critical role in the economic recovery of our region. Helping our regional neighbours to get vaccines will:

• reduce the burden of disease from COVID-19
• help open up travel for people and goods
• help economic recovery and the longer-term resilience of the Pacific and South East Asia.

Australia has committed $623.2 million over 3 years to assist countries in the Pacific and Southeast Asia to access COVID-19 vaccines:

• The Australian Government committed $523.2 million for its regional Vaccine Access and Health Security Initiative, which began on 23 March 2021. It funds 120,000 vaccine doses a week to neighbouring countries, along with technical support for vaccine rollouts.
• The Government committed an additional $100 million on 13 March as part of a landmark vaccine partnership with Quad partners (the US, India and Japan). This partnership aims to provide over 1 billion vaccines to the Indo-Pacific by 2022 and support 'last-mile' delivery.

Other agreements

The Australian Government supported the University of Queensland’s research into a possible COVID-19 vaccine. This vaccine completed Phase 1 clinical trials, but did not proceed to Phase 2/3.