Australia’s federal government has launched a new attempt to find more domestic manufacturers to supply it with the materials needed for Covid-19 testing, a move crossbench senator Rex Patrick says has started too late.
On Friday, the government issued a callout seeking Australian companies that may be able to manufacture various components used in Covid-19 testing, including the sterile tubes used to store and transport swabs, nucleic acid extraction kits, and essential chemicals.
The process is designed to better gauge Australia’s capability to manufacture such material locally, in the face of extraordinary global demand and pressure on existing supply chains.
Patrick, who himself tested positive to Covid-19 last month, described the delay between the first confirmed Australian case on 25 January and the initiation of the process as a “failure of government”. That failure was both one of the delayed response and the “longer-term strategic issue” of Australia’s sovereign capabilities at times of crisis.
“With all the conversations on testing, why did it take until this month to seek information about Covid-19 test kit materials?” he said.
Australia has conducted 299,000 tests and has one of the highest testing rates per capita in the world. Jurisdictions such as Victoria have recently moved to relax testing criteria, a move likely to boost testing rates further still.
But the unprecedented demand has put pressure on stocks of consumable material used in the conventional laboratory testing process.
In mid-March, the chief medical officer Brendan Murphy warned of temporary shortages, which he said were impacting “the scale of testing that we can do at the moment”.
About the same time, Murphy wrote to general practitioners warning them “the situation regarding pathology test kits, reagents and swabs is deteriorating rapidly, with kits no longer being available in some regions of the country”.
The government has also privately asked universities to search their campuses for any material that might be able to be used in testing, sought extra supply from abroad, and worked to ensure the supply chains of testing companies were secure.
Industry minister Karen Andrews said the government had been working “for some time” on developing domestic manufacturing options for Covid-19 testing materials. Friday’s callout to industry was simply an extension of that work, she said.
“Securing Australia’s testing capacity for Covid-19 is one of the Australian government’s highest priorities,” Andrews said. “We have secured vast amounts of testing kits from major international suppliers that is meeting current demand, while simultaneously working to ensure we build our domestic capability.”
“We have been working with Australian companies for some time to ensure supply and to look to develop domestic manufacturing options.”
No one has yet responded to the government’s callout – known as a request for information – in the short time since it was issued. But similar moves – including one to gauge interest in manufacturing PPE – have drawn a significant response.
The government has also approved a different type of test – an antibody test – which can rapidly return a result without the need for laboratory testing.
It has announced $2.6m for diagnostics research at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity to give a greater ability for widespread testing for diagnosis and clearance.
“Australia has one of the highest testing rates in the world and combined with our strict social distancing measures is helping to slow the spread of coronavirus,” Andrews said.
