Covid-19 roundup: Pfiz­er strikes vac­cine deal with New Zealand, as CEO Al­bert Bourla de­fends de­vel­op­ment rush to crit­ics

Pfiz­er and BioN­Tech have inked a deal with New Zealand for 1.5 mil­lion vac­cine dos­es to be de­liv­ered as ear­ly as first quar­ter next year, ac­cord­ing to Reuters.

It’s un­clear how much the gov­ern­ment is pay­ing for the batch, which should be enough to in­oc­u­late 750,000 peo­ple.

The news comes as Pfiz­er CEO Al­bert Bourla con­tin­ues to push for da­ta to meet reg­u­la­to­ry stan­dards for emer­gency au­tho­riza­tion by the end of this month. The can­di­date is now Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump’s on­ly hope for a vac­cine be­fore the Nov. 3 elec­tion, as Mod­er­na has said that the ear­li­est they will be able to file for an EUA is Nov. 25. Re­ports have emerged that Bourla’s now try­ing to get his crit­ics on board.

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