Another 10 million COVID-19 jabs as Pfizer deal doubled

Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer will supply 20 million doses of its mRNA vaccine to Australia by the end of the year, the federal government has confirmed.

A woman receives a Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine in River Grove, Illinois, on Wednesday. Picture: AFP

Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer will supply 20 million doses of its mRNA vaccine to Australia by the end of the year, the federal government has confirmed, as new evidence emerged showing the AstraZeneca vaccine has a significant effect in stopping the transmission of COVID-19.

Scott Morrison announced Australia had secured an extra 10 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine, doubling our order which will now be sufficient to vaccinate almost half of the population.

The government revealed that on the advice of the Science and Industry Technical Advisory Group, it built a clause into its contract with Pfizer that provided for an option to purchase more doses of the jab once regulatory approval was granted. “That group advised from the outset that we should build an option, subject to the determination by the Therapeutic Goods Administration, into our contract to purchase additional doses if the TGA were to approve the use of Pfizer,” the Prime Minister said. “We did that quietly behind the scenes. Once the TGA approved the Pfizer vaccine, we triggered that option.”

The TGA granted provisional approval for the Pfizer vaccine on January 24. The first doses are due to arrive in Australia in time for vaccinations to begin in late February. The vaccine is being imported from Belgium.

Australia now has contracts for the purchase of 150 million doses of vaccine, including 53 million doses of AstraZeneca and 51 million doses of Novavax.

Health Minister Greg Hunt said everyone in Australia would be in line to receive a vaccination, including those with temporary visa status. “The government will provide COVID-19 vaccinations free to all visa holders in Australia. This will include refugees, asylum-seekers, temporary protection visa holders and those on bridging visas,” he said. “People residing in detention facilities will also be eligible, including those whose visas have been cancelled. That’s making sure that there is the maximum possible coverage in Australia.”

The increased order of Pfizer vaccine was welcomed by many doctors, who have been pushing for Australia to buy more of the high-efficacy mRNA jab. Pfizer’s vaccine has been shown to have an efficacy rate of 95 per cent in clinical trials, and the government had faced criticism for not negotiating aggressively enough to secure a large number of doses of it.

Groups to have been given the highest priority will be the first to receive the vaccine once it begins to be administered from hospital hubs later this month. High-risk frontline healthcare workers, border and quarantine workers, and aged-care and disability care staff and residents will be the first group to receive the Pfizer vaccine.

Australia is to receive 80,000 doses of Pfizer in late February, with an estimated 80,000 doses arriving each week after that, before the orders begin to ramp up over coming months.

More than a million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine will also be imported to Australia in March, with CSL providing a million doses a week of it from late next month.

The AstraZeneca vaccine was given a boost when it was revealed it could have a substantial effect on curbing virus transmission. Oxford University scientists said in a paper published in The Lancet the vaccine may reduce symptomatic transmission of the virus by 67 per cent, based on positive swab tests of vaccinated trial volunteers after a single dose. It suggested the vaccine was 82 per cent effective in reducing disease severity if two doses were given 12 weeks apart.