Australia could be left to import 'incredibly promising' Pfizer vaccine

A potential breakthrough by US drug giant Pfizer on a coronavirus vaccine has sparked calls for greater federal government investment the genetic technologies underpinning the product, which Australia will be forced to import because it cannot yet be made here.

Pfizer and partner BioNTech overnight announced the interim results of advanced 'Phase 3' trials for the coronavirus vaccine they are developing, which found the vaccine was more than 90 per cent effective in protecting participants.

Pfizer's product is set for Australian shores next year. Credit: Bloomberg

The two companies have already struck a deal with the Morrison government to supply 10 million doses of the product to Australia, with deliveries planned in 2021.

Pfizer and BioNTech's product uses mRNA technology, a new approach in vaccine making that instructs the body how to build an immune response to coronavirus. It's hoped mRNA technologies can also be used to develop therapies for other illnesses including cancer.

If companies such as Pfizer can successfully bring these mRNA products to market they will be the first of their kind in the world. But Australia does not yet have capacity to make mRNA vaccines, so Pfizer's products would be likely to be imported.

Vaccine researcher at RMIT Dr Kylie Quinn said the Pfizer results were encouraging, but Australia would be wise to develop capability in mRNA production.

"It’s incredibly promising — to have a level like 90 per cent efficacy is quite remarkable. I had been hopeful of 60 per cent. Ninety per cent is pretty striking," she said.

"If we invest in infrastructure now, it’s investing in pandemic preparedness."

Vaccines like Pfizer's must be stored at very low temperatures during transportation, posing supply chain challenges when importing the product. When asked where Australia's doses of the vaccine would come from, a Pfizer Australia spokesperson said the company was leveraging multiple manufacturing sites in the US and Europe, and pointed to Pfizer's facility in Belgium was its "key international exports hub".

Last month the government acknowledged local production of mRNA vaccines would take longer than protein-based vaccines in Australia due to mRNA technologies being so new, but pledged to cast a wide net when planning vaccine investments.

Australia's deal with Pfizer and another supply agreement with Novavax for a different vaccine product bring the total number of formal vaccine supply deals to four.

The Pfizer product, known as BNT162b2, has already been granted a provisional determination by Australia's Therapeutic Goods Administration, which paves the way for Pfizer to apply for a provisional registration of the product.

Biotechnology giant CSL has agreed to produce the Oxford and AstraZeneca vaccine if successful and began this process on Monday. CSL will also make the University of Queensland's vaccine if it passes trials.

Pfizer's interim analysis saw 94 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and found the "case split between vaccinated individuals and those who received the placebo indicates a vaccine efficacy rate above 90 per cent, at seven days after the second dose".

Dr Quinn warned there were still key unknowns about Pfizer's results, however, including how long the protection against the virus might last and whether some cohorts of trial participants may not be seeing benefits from the vaccine.

"We still have a cohort of people getting infected. We don't know what their characteristics are yet."

World markets rallied on news of Pfizer's results and the local sharemarket shared in the sugar rush, with the ASX 200 up 2.2 per cent at the open.

Investors have also been quick to caution that despite enthusiasm for the early data, there will still be plenty of hurdles on the path to getting the product to market.

"The results have come in after day 28, so the long-term duration of the vaccine is still not known, so the vaccine protection is hard to quantify," said cross-asset specialist at Fidelity, Anthony Doyle.

"This was [also] not a challenge trial — patients are not exposed to the virus to see if they have strong immunity."

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