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The true story of the two German scientists, children of immigrants from Germany, who did the research behind the Pfizer vaccine for coronavirus. One the son of a guest worker from Turkey who worked at a car factory in Cologne, another the daughter of a doctor who finished medical school and immigrated to Germany. They started primarily on cancer vaccines using new mRNA technologies. Much of their work focused on meeting the gap that had developed says Ozlem Tureci, between what was done in the labs and what was available to patients and doctors. 

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Serbia ranks high in the countries with successful vaccination drives. About 29.5 people of every 100 have been vaccinated. About 2.2 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine were bought in August 2020 followed by separate deals for the Russian Sputnik vaccine and the Chinese vaccine. Serbian prime minister Ana Brnabic says the success is a result of their approach to vaccination- "A health issue, not a political issue, negotiating with all, whether East or West."

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Joe Biden, US president says the US will have 300 million vaccine doses by the end of July. 200 million more vaccine doses, with 100 million from Pfizer and 100 million from Moderna are part of new finalized purchases by the Biden government in February 2021. Biden says vaccine supplies were in much worse shape than he thought after the last 2 months of the Trump administration led to distractions that affected handling of the pandemic. 

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How is it that Britain's regulatory agency approved the Pfizer vaccine before the U.S. FDA agency? This report in the NYT says FDA looks at the raw data. Britain's Medicine and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency looks at the information provided by the company. It still does the testing batch by batch and has access to the data and looks at thousands of pages of data. What about the European Union? The European Union Medicines Agency meets on December 29. It takes days after it meets to get input of 27 countries so that vaccination cannot start till January. The U.S. president summoned the FDA to the White House to find out how soon the FDA could act. Both Britain and the U.S. are feeling the impact of the second wave of coronavirus.

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Kate Bingham, head of the Vaccine Task Force in Britain is commended for her intelligent approach in placing bets on vaccines in different technologies, "four buckets" as she calls them. This includes the Moderna and Pfizer in the mRNA technology and the viral vector Astra Zeneca, J&J vaccines. This approach made the British vaccination drive effective by being supported by a resilient supply system.

The Indian government has supported the effort to get several companies to make the Sputnik Russian vaccine in India in an effort to diversify supplies. Reddy Labs is one of the major manufacturers working on the Sputnik vaccine in 2021.

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The vaccine cost varies with the company Astra Zeneca at $4 and Moderna at $25. Government money is taking away much of the risk for manufacturers. The U.S. government has allocated massive investments with different manufacturers to ensure that a vaccine is available. Worldwide demand is about 2 billion doses over 2 years. Seven manufacturers have joined together to reassure the public that a vaccine will be tested carefully for safety and effectiveness. Some manufacturers excluding Pfizer and Moderna have stated that the vaccine will be provided at cost.

To return to some level of normal economy and people able to live normal lives the vaccine has to be available to all people at an affordable and widely available level.

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Pfizer's acquisition of Wyeth.

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Speaking for the Biden administration Anthony Blinken says that "on the current trajectory, if we don't do more, if the entire world doesn't do more, the entire world won't be vaccinated until 2024." What is needed he said is to "speed this up, and get that done, I think, in a much shorter time." Experts say the immediate impact of the Biden decision to give waivers on transfer of patents technologies is to get drug companies to cooperate with each other and for them to voluntarily join in the manufacture of vaccines globally. This would be done through global manufacturing alliances in major pharmaceutical manufacturing nations such as France, India and other countries that can quickly ramp up manufacturing if they have access to the technologies involved and the knowhow itself. The Biden decision is then the first of many decisions that would lead to voluntary action by pharmaceutical companies cooperating say Novartis and Sanofi in France and Switzerland with a Pfizer or Moderna in increasing manufacturing capacity or a Serum Institute or Reddy Labs in India working with Pfizer and Moderna or Novavax. These companies already have the basic structures to ramp up. This would take months yet the process has to start immediately. Today many companies such as Glaxo Smith Kline in UK and US are in a position to get involved in manufacturing but need access to the technologies and knowhow. Leadership by the US plays a huge part in making that happen.  ...

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Israel remains a laboratory for the rest of the world in tackling coronavirus. During the beginning of 2021 Israel was the first country to push ahead with Pfizer vaccines for the over 18 population in a country of 10 million people. As winter approaches Israel has given a third booster shot to 50% of the population and is able to conduct normal life with a green pass system and the use of masks indoors. Each time a major surge has been prevented. The green pass in Israel is now for people who have had a third shot or booster shot. By thinking one step ahead, making decisions rapidly, and coordinating action early between the government and other organizations to vaccinate everyone, Israel provides lessons for the rest of the world. Not that there are no unvaccinated -about 700,000 people do not believe in vaccination and are unvaccinated. They are a vocal group but only about 8% of the population, and the vast majority of Israelis are in favor of vaccination and the green pass system. ...

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The 177 acre campus in Ann Arbor, Michigan, that is the Pfizer Research labs is closed, sealed off and silent, an empty place, now that Pfizer has decided to close the labs for good. Lipitor was invented here by a group of researchers who had their foundation in chemistry. One of them was a Yugoslavian immigrant to the UK who moved here, Dr Sliskovic to join Warner Lambert. Pfizer acquired Warner Lambert in 2000, now 7 years later the Labs are closed as chemist based research has not produced much in results.For years chemists at these labs have labored without finding a new drug. The success of Lipitor has sustained this research generating $13 billion a year. But now Pfizer is looking to outsource some of the chemist based work to places like India. Some of the research money will go to biotech research which now looks more promising and research will be handled from it Coonecticut based research offices. The whole field of chemistry based resarch for pharmaceuticals is changing and is not what it once was and chemists are looking for jobs in other fields....

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The new tiered system of tighter restrictions passed in the British parliament 291 to 78 with 51 Tory rebels voting against and 10 Tories abstaining. Labour abstained from the vote getting it to pass. Tory rebels are voting with their constituents in Tory seats in parliament that have lower rate from coronavirus and see the restrictions hurting the lives of people in their areas. The prime minister had to make a special plea to them to get it passed including promising to review in granular detail these areas which needed lifting restrictions because of low infection rates.

Other steps the government is taking are to seek emergency approval of vaccines with the first approval done for Pfizer vaccine. This means Britain will be the first country to start vaccinations in 24-48 hours- December 3 or December 4.

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This report in The Times shows 2 charts. One with how much of the population has been vaccinated with Israel and the UAE at about 33%, UK at 12% US at 7%, and EU countries far behind. The second chart shows how much of the western world's vaccine supplies have been purchased by US, UK, and EU. 

European Union appears to be lagging behind in arranging purchases of vaccine supplies, with UK and US ahead. The shortages in Europe of vaccine, and limited supplies of the Astra Zeneca vaccine to the EU, is resulting in a nasty argument with the UK. At one point the EU planned to limit vaccine exports from the Pfizer Belgian plant to the UK, including closing off the Northern Ireland border.  That move came under criticism from EU's Michael Barnier.