Pfizer to begin first US immunisation programmes in another leap forwards for Covid vaccine

The company has selected Rhode Island, Texas, New Mexico, and Tennessee for the pilot

A researcher works in a lab run by Moderna, who said its experimental vaccine was 94.5% effective in preventing Covid-19 (via REUTERS)

Pfizer is set to launch a coronavirus vaccine pilot programme across four US states, the pharmaceutical company said late on Monday.  

The programme is intended to help the company refine its plans for large-scale delivery and deployment of its much awaited vaccine.

The US drugmaker said it had selected Rhode Island, Texas, New Mexico, and Tennessee for the programme because of their differences in overall size, diversity of populations and immunisation infrastructure, as well as the states' need to reach individuals in varied urban and rural settings.

"The four states included in this pilot programme will not receive vaccine doses earlier than other states by virtue of this pilot, nor will they receive any differential consideration," Pfizer said in a statement.

Pfizer’s vaccine, developed with German partner BioNTech SE, was the first in the world to return initial data showing it to be more than 90 per cent effective in shielding against Covid-19, giving a new ray of hope to a world struggling to contain the pandemic.

The two companies have a $1.95bn deal to supply 100 million doses of the vaccine to the US government, which has an option to acquire up to an additional 500 million doses. Last week, the company had already sold 80 per cent of the doses available to wealthy nations.

Earlier on Monday, rival Moderna Inc said its experimental vaccine was 94.5 per cent effective in preventing Covid-19 based on interim data from a late-stage trial, boosting hopes that one of the vaccines against the disease may be ready for use soon. The UK government has secured 5 million doses of the Moderna vaccine for its citizens.

Both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines use a new technology called synthetic messenger RNA to activate the immune system against the virus. However, experts have raised concerns about the distribution challenges associated with Pfizer's vaccine due to its specialised storage requirements, particularly for countries with warmer climates.

Pfizer’s vaccine has to be stored at minus 70 degrees Celsius, though it can be kept for up to five days in a regular fridge.

Experts had warned earlier on in the pandemic that there was no guarantee the first vaccines developed would be 100 per cent successful, making the results from Pfizer, Moderna and similar figures from early-stage trials of a Russian vaccine particularly encouraging. 

There have been more than 55 million cases of coronavirus recorded worldwide, and the virus has claimed over 1.3m lives. The country with the most cases is the US, on 11.3m, followed by India, Brazil, France, Russia, Spain and the UK.