Health Minister Greg Hunt says the federal government is in the advanced stages of determining which companies will manufacture mRNA vaccinations in Australia this week. Currently, Australia imports all mRNA vaccines such as Pfizer and Moderna. The only COVID-19 vaccine manufactured domestically is AstraZeneca, which is an adenovirus vaccine. Hunt did not speculate on the companies that will be chosen. “I am expecting an announcement on the shortlist this week,” Hunt told reporters in Canberra on Sunday, Oct. 24. The Australian government announced it was looking into the mRNA market since July of this year with many large pharmaceutical companies such as CSL, BioCina, Luina Bio and IDT bidding for a position. Messenger RNA (mRNA) are genes that contain information for the formation of proteins and is made from DNA. Viruses like COVID-19 carry mRNA and other proteins to enable them to enter our cells, where the viral proteins then convert …