From the time the coronavirus was first identified in Wuhan, China – where CSL Behring has a manufacturing facility – the company has been assisting in the fight against COVID-19 in a number of ways, including offering expertise, resources, technologies, equipment and materials on a humanitarian basis. As the challenges from the pandemic grow and evolve, we continue to respond.

• CSL rapidly established dedicated COVID-19 vaccine teams across its business units and transitioned elements of its Australian manufacturing capacity, at both our CSL Behring Broadmeadows and CSL Seqirus Parkville facilities, to manufacture 50 million doses of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine for local use. First doses were rolled out in March 2021 with over 10 million doses released at the end of June 2021.
• In 2020, CSL worked with the University of Queensland in the early stages of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate. A Phase I clinical trial showed that the vaccine elicited a robust response towards the virus and had a strong safety profile. However, following consultation with the Australian Government, CSL did not progress the vaccine candidate to Phase II or Phase III clinical trials.
• Our sister company CSL Seqirus provided its adjuvant technology to support vaccine efforts, including the University of Queensland vaccine development programme. Adjuvants can help improve immune response and reduce the amount of antigen needed for each vaccine, enabling more doses to be manufactured more rapidly.
• CSL Behring co-founded the CoVIg-19 Plasma Alliance, an unprecedented industry of 11 plasma companies across 13 countries and five continents, to develop a potential plasma-derived hyperimmune therapy for treating COVID-19. The one-year collaboration concluded in April 2021 after a Phase III clinical trial of the potential therapy did not meet its endpoints.