An accelerated development timeline for vaccines against COVID-19 was possible given the following:

a. Significant investment and dedication of resources from vaccine manufacturers to the ramping up of vaccine production;

b. The mRNA technology platform had already been in development for many years prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

c. Strong global partnerships between many different partners including international organisations, governments, researchers and manufacturers;

d. Given the pandemic situation, recruitment for and conduct of the randomised controlled trials to identify the differences in disease risk between those given vaccines and placebo, are able to be conducted more quickly than in the absence of a pandemic.

e. Many trials have performed their trial phases concurrently, allowing for sufficient data to be produced in a shorter time.

Safety, scientific or ethical integrity have not been compromised, and no short-cuts have been made, but the unique circumstances and factors described above have allowed accelerated development.

Emerging real-world and follow-up data on the safety and effectiveness of the mRNA vaccines in other jurisdictions is consistent with the effectiveness of the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines observed in the clinical trial data. This further supports that scientific rigour was not compromised in the development of the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines.