The Australian Strep A Vaccine Initiative

The Australian Strep A Vaccine Initiative (ASAVI) has been a wonderful and productive partnership between The Kids Research Institute Australia (The Kids) and Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI) that has not only accelerated Strep A vaccine development in Australia but has significantly galvanised the field globally.

We are extremely proud of the achievements to date, notably the establishment and qualification of a suite of immune assays to support vaccine development, the completion of national surveillance of pharyngitis rates in Australian children in three capital cities to inform vaccine trial design and being a key partner for vaccine developers to accelerate vaccine candidates into clinical trials.

Importantly, our work has seen a new vaccine candidate enter Phase 1 studies in Australia, with others poised to follow.

This has set the stage for a new phase of development focused on partnering with individual vaccine developers to advance clinical candidates.

We are committed to ensuring promising vaccines can be licensed, manufactured and made available in Australia and globally, while ensuring that the needs of Australian First Nations people remains a priority.

As the initiative progresses to its ambitious next stage of development, the requirements for future collaborations have naturally evolved. Consequently, The Kids and MCRI have agreed to retire the ASAVI brand and continue future work, including collaborations with each other, under our own institutional brands, with The Kids continuing this work through the Vaccine Initiative for Strep A (VISTA) Program.

Both organisations remain committed to working together to continue to advance Strep A vaccine development.

For more information on the work being undertaken by MCRI and The Kids, please visit the links below.