By GREGORY ZELLER //
It appears Albany’s questionable attempt to cut out the middleman in its immunization efforts is a nonstarter.
Governor Andrew Cuomo on Monday sent a letter to Pfizer Chairman and CEO Albert Bourla requesting the ability to purchase COVID-19 vaccines directly from the New York City-based global pharma manufacturer.
Whether this was an honest effort to speed vaccinations to New Yorkers or a political stunt, the effort was doomed from the start – although Cuomo makes a decent case in his letter to Bourla, noting Pfizer is not bound by commitments to Operation Warp Speed, the public-private partnership that helped Massachusetts-based biotech Moderna develop and distribute its COVID vaccine, which is now being divvied by federal regulators.
That puts Pfizer “in a unique situation that could help us save lives right here in New York,” according to the governor.
Albert Bourla: No deal.
On Tuesday, however, Pfizer dashed the idea, noting the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services would have to approve any such arrangement, based on the specifics of the emergency use authorization granted to the groundbreaking vaccine by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
That’s bad news for Cuomo, who butters up the home-state team and project partner BioNTech, the German biotech that helped Pfizer develop its FDA-approved vaccine, in a letter that’s part novel idea, part political therapy session.
The governor counts the vaccine among “the weapons that will finally win the war against COVID-19” and makes no bones about his mission to “dramatically increase the number of doses getting to New Yorkers.”
Neither does he mince words about the cause of New York’s dosage predicament, repeatedly lamenting a shortfall of federal supplies.
“After myself and seven other governors called on the Trump Administration to release more doses, HHS Secretary Alex Azar said that relief was on the way,” Cuomo writes. “To date, however, the federal government has not acted on that promise – in fact, New York will receive just 250,000 doses this week, 50,000 fewer than the week prior.”
Andrew Cuomo: Worth a shot.
Meanwhile, new federal guidelines have qualified larger populations for vaccinations, increasing the eligible in New York alone from 5 million to 7 million “practically overnight,” according to the governor.
“The federal administration essentially opened up a floodgate while cutting our supply – leading to confusion, frustration and dashed hopes,” he writes.
Obtaining vaccine doses straight from Pfizer, and following the “rigorous guidance the state has established” for their prioritized distribution, would begin to close “the dosage gap created … by the outgoing federal administration” and further the New York State Department of Health’s goal of “vaccinat[ing] 70 to 90 percent of New Yorkers as soon as possible and reach herd immunity,” Cuomo writes.
The governor further decries “shifting guidance” from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and tells Bourla, “you no doubt understand the challenges New York and other states face.”
Pfizer’s Tuesday response makes no reference to those specific challenges. And Cuomo’s straight-to-the-source maneuvering has drawn fire from the left, with a member of President-elect Joe Biden’s COVID Advisory Board suggesting the governor’s thinking could spark a state-vs.-state bidding war for vaccine doses.
While selling directly to New York or any other state might not work, Pfizer did note its willingness to rethink current distribution models, through proper channels.
“Pfizer is open to collaborating with HHS on a distribution model that gives as many Americans as possible access to our vaccine as quickly as possible,” the company said Tuesday.
