Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Government Business in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Xenophon for his question. What I can say on behalf of the minister for health is that the National Health and Medical Research Council recently did approve a total of $7 million in grants for 41 Australian medical research projects that will help to ensure that the Australian government’s response to the evolving threat of H1N1 is based on the most up-to-date information available. The grant recipients were chosen after robust, independent, international peer review of the applications to identify the critical projects that would best shed more light on H1N1. That is the basis on which the grants were provided. CSL did not receive any funding from the $7 million in NHMRC research grants. Grant recipients were required to have results by December 2009. Vaxine were unable to show the NHMRC, I am informed, that they would have their results by that time. The government has placed an order for 21 million doses of vaccine with CSL Ltd, which CSL has the capacity to produce. The United States has also placed an order with CSL for around 100 million doses of the vaccine.

Senator Xenophon has asked what the basis of the decision was. It appears that, in short, Vaxine were unable to show the NHMRC that they would be able to have a result by that time. That provided the basis upon which the decision was made by the National Health and Medical Research Council, as the appropriate place for such decisions to be made. (Time expired)