Australia has inked an agreement with British pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca to supply Australians with the University of Oxford COVID-19 vaccine for free.

The target is to secure 25 million doses of the vaccine being developed by Oxford University if it proves successful in human trials.

The agreement also includes a contract with medical technology company Becton Dickinson for the supply of needles and syringes to make sure there is sufficient supply on hand to roll out the vaccine nationally.

Australia’s largest biotechnology company, CSL, is in discussions with AstraZeneca and the government concerning local production of the Oxford vaccine.

"Production and contracting is not a barrier for delivery in Australia. We're very fortunate because we have that reserve national capacity in terms of the CSL production facilities within Victoria, particularly in Melbourne. And that gives us the capacity to be able to make sure that we have the best available vaccines and that we can then scale up and deliver very quickly", said Gregory Andrew Hunt, Health Minister.