New Zealand Buys Millions of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccines

New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins announced on March 7, 2021, the purchase of 8.5 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid vaccine, reported local media. These vaccines are expected to arrive in New Zealand during the second half of 2021.

"This purchase marks a significant milestone in New Zealand's fight against Covid-19. We can all take heart that we have now secured one of the strongest and more effective tools in the Covid-19 toolkit," Ardern said.

On February 3, 2021, the local medicines regulator Medsafe provisionally approve the Pfizer - BioNTech Vaccine (Comirnaty) to be used in New Zealand. In a joint statement, the Director-General of Health, Dr. Ashley Bloomfield, and Medsafe Group Manager Chris James outlined the decision process.

“Medsafe began assessing the clinical data provided by Pfizer-BioNTech in November 2020, working over weekends and through the Christmas break,” said Dr. Bloomfield. “The data was provided on a rolling basis, which streamlined the assessment process and enabled a timely approval without compromising the rigor of the review of the vaccine."

“I want to reinforce that this has been a carefully considered decision every step of the way."

The experimental Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 (Comirnaty) Vaccine prevents severe COVID-19 disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. Comirnaty (the trade name used in Europe) is a nucleoside-modified RNA formulated in lipid nanoparticles and encodes an optimized SARS-CoV-2 full-length spike protein antigen. It was authorized in the USA during December 2020.