The federal health minister has welcomed news the Victorian government will contribute $50 million towards new technology and research so COVID-19 vaccines such as the Pfizer and Moderna jabs can be made here.

But he’s defending the decision to focus on producing the AstraZeneca vaccine locally.

Greg Hunt told Neil Mitchell there was no alternative at the time.

“The transformation of the CSL plant to be able produce AstraZeneca was literally a round-the-clock war-time project and that was the fastest way to produce mass vaccines in Australia,” he said.

“It was absolutely necessary we did that, given the global uncertainty.”

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