In a statement issued today, Principal Director of The George Institute for Global Health, Professor Stephen MacMahon AO FAA, welcomed the Australian Government’s move to roll out a COVID-19 vaccine in Australia next month. Professor MacMahon is currently in the UK finalising a partnership between The George Institute and Imperial College London for a major new program of medical research.  A large component of this will involve collaboration between the partners to develop strategies for COVID-19 prevention and management among those at highest risk of death from the virus.

Professor MacMahon said:

“I congratulate Prime Minister Morrison, Minister Hunt, and the Government as a whole, for bringing forward the roll out of a COVID-19 vaccination program.  Having experienced first-hand the enormous toll the virus is taking in the UK, it is clear to me that it is of critical importance Australia does all it can to avoid facing the same crisis.” 

“I also welcome the new measures announced after the National Cabinet meeting to help mitigate the risk posed by new, more infectious virus variants, such as the one in the UK. Maintaining low infection rates through lock downs, quarantine and testing, together with the rapid scale-up of a vaccination program, will ensure the virus does not take hold in Australia as it has in other countries.  The UK experienced very low rates of infection for several months last year as did Australia, and there was widespread optimism that the pandemic was under control.  But two months later, the rates in the UK had increased 17-fold and today one in every 50 Britons have COVID-19”.

“In many countries, one or more vaccines have been approved for emergency use on the basis of data from large-scale clinical trials demonstrating protection from the virus and few side effects.  While the usual approval process for new drugs can take 12 months or longer, the unprecedented threat posed by COVID-19 has led drug regulators to fast-track their reviews and provide approval for vaccine use when there is evidence that the benefits are likely to outweigh any risks. On the same basis, the World Health Organization has also approved the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for emergency use. This vaccine has now been given to more than seven million people worldwide, including more than a million in the UK without reports of major complications.”

“The experience to date is very encouraging in terms of vaccine safety and effectiveness, and the decision of regulators in several countries to approve one or more vaccines for emergency use appears to have been vindicated. It is encouraging to see that the approval process has now been expedited in Australia, given there has never been a time when the need for emergency use of a drug has been greater.  Action needs to be taken right now while case numbers remain low and the impact of vaccination will be greatest. The expedited roll out of the vaccination programme will help ensure Australia never finds itself in the same situation as the UK, where health authorities are battling to increase vaccination rates to the level required to control the spread of the virus. Last week, the daily number of new cases of the virus in the UK reached over 60,000 and the National Health Service is facing unprecedented pressure.  This mustn’t be allowed to happen in Australia.”

Two George Institute researchers have been awarded funding by the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP) to help make it easier to test new treatments for different forms of kidney disease.

Dr Ying Amanda Wang, Senior Research Fellow in the Renal and Metabolic Division at The Institute, has been awarded the RACP’s 2021 Jacquot Research Establishment Fellowship with a $90,000 funding boost for her work to improve acute kidney injury outcomes.

The Jacquot Awards, co-administered by the RACP and the Australian and New Zealand Society of Nephrology, support nephrologists wishing to establish or pursue a research career for the treatment and management of renal disease.

Dr Wang, who is a consultant nephrologist and general physician, said that while medical understanding of acute kidney injury had transformed over the last twenty years, there are still no treatments proven to improve patient outcomes.

“We now know that acute kidney injury doesn’t just get better – it has a long term and wide-ranging impact on health,” she said.

“There are a number of promising treatments under development, but they will all need to be tested in clinical trials to see how effective they are.

“My research aims to help build a world-leading clinical trials capability for acute kidney injury in Australia that will see our patients at the forefront of advances in treatments.”

Dr Sradha Kotwal, Research Fellow at The George Institute and senior lecturer at the University of NSW, has been awarded a 2021 RACP Research Establishment Fellowship with a $50,000 boost for her work in chronic kidney disease (CKD). The funding will allow for the development and expansion of two initiatives to facilitate larger national and international clinical trials to improve treatment options for people with CKD.

“There is no network for kidney diseases that currently operates on an Australian or international scale allowing researchers to conduct major trials in this area of medicine,” said Dr Kotwal.

“My program of work will develop such a network in Australia and globally.”

The Global Kidney Patient Trial Network is an international, prospective, observational registry-style cohort of people with CKD who are willing to participate in clinical trials.

The newly established Glomerular Disease Registry and Biobank will also benefit from the funding. It will capture and store DNA and blood samples for future research and will allow the development of precision medicine approaches for patients.

Dr Kotwal is a nephrologist at Prince of Wales Hospital in Sydney Australia.

An innovative study to assess whether a commonly used cholesterol lowering medication can prevent brain complications from COVID-19 has received over $2.3m from the Government’s Medical Research Future Fund.

The study, a collaboration between The George Institute for Global Health, the University of New South Wales, Monash University’s School of Public Health, University of Sydney, and Sydney Local Health District, is one of six that have been singled out for immediate support in the ongoing fight against the pandemic.

Chief Investigator Professor Craig Anderson from The George Institute said that COVID-19 can cause a range of complications to the brain.

“At the time of the acute infection, COVID-19 puts patients at high risk of strokes from intense inflammation in the body and being critically ill. However, the virus may disrupt neural pathways in more subtle ways from direct invasion of the brain” he said.

“We aim to test whether treatment with a statin, widely prescribed to prevent strokes and improve cardiovascular health, has anti-inflammatory effects that can maintain memory and thinking after COVID-19 infection.”

Neurological complications have emerged as a significant cause of ongoing ill health in the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Many of those affected complain of various symptoms such as “brain fog”, dizziness, headaches, insomnia and fatigue. They may also be at increased risk of long-term complications, such as stroke and memory impairment. 

Statins are one of the most commonly prescribed medications globally which help to control the body’s production of cholesterol, but they are also known to reduce the activity of certain cell proteins that are involved in the body’s response to infection and inflammation. Some studies also suggest they may reduce the risk of dementia including Alzheimer’s disease.

The trial - codenamed STRONGER (Statin TReatment for COVID-19 to Optimise NeuroloGical recovERy) - aims to determine if a particular statin (atorvastatin) helps improve neurological recovery in 410 adults after who have had COVID-19 infection in the last year. The study will partner with colleagues in Santiago, Chile - supported by local funding - to recruit people with more recent infection.

“We know from other serious viral infections and the way that the brain’s vascular system can be impacted, that COVID complications could lead to neurological problems,” added Prof Anderson.

“If we can prevent this using a well-studied, widely available and low-cost treatment, the long-term consequences of COVID-19 on cognitive function could be avoided.”