IDT Australia Limited (ASX: ITD) shares are soaring today after the company announced it has been approached by the Australian Government to assess the feasibility of producing COVID-19 vaccines. At the time of writing, the IDT share price is rocketing 64.86% to 30.5 cents.
The pharmaceutical company, known for producing medical cannabis products, is assessing whether its facilities would be suitable to manufacture the vaccines.
Let's take a closer look.
Vaccine production ramps up
IDT Australia announced today it has been contacted by the Australian Government Department of Health. The company claims the department was inquiring about whether IDT Australia's Melbourne-based sterile facility could be used to supplement manufacturing of COVID-19 vaccines.
Currently, the Federal Health Department states that CSL Limited's (ASX: CSL) Melbourne facility is the only manufacturer of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine in Australia. It also states that the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine will be the only one to be produced in Australia.
COVID-19 vaccinations began rolling out in Australia on 22 February this year. At the time of writing, approximately 240,000 Australian's have received the vaccine.
More about IDT Australia
IDT, Institute of Drug Technology, is a commercial-scale pharmaceutical manufacturing and production company.
It specialises in manufacturing active pharmaceutical ingredients and finished form doses.
IDT Australia began manufacturing medicinal cannabis products in 2019 and, according to the company, it operates a leading facility in the medical cannabis manufacturing space.
IDT Australia share price snapshot
Following today's gains, the IDT share price is now trading at its highest levels since May 2016.
Over the past year, IDT shares have risen by around 210%. The company's shares are also up by around 60% year to date however all these gains have occurred today.
IDT Australia has a market capitalisation of around $44.4 million with approximately 240 million shares outstanding.
