NZ last in line for vaccine

New Zealanders are being warned they could among the last citizens in the world to get a coronavirus vaccine, as scientists scramble to develop a homegrown candidate.

Experts have told Stuff that under most scenarios, it will be a ‘‘long way’’ before a vaccine makes it to New Zealand shores, with growing nationalism overseas fuelling a reluctance among leaders to share vaccines beyond their borders.

Even if vaccines were shared globally, New Zealand would be ‘‘on the bottom of the list’’ of countries to receive it, they said.

Globally, scientists are developing more than 100 vaccine candidates using a range of techniques, some of which have never been approved for medical use.

In New Zealand, there is one study under way to re-purpose an existing drug as a Covid-19 vaccine as well as research into how we could manufacture an overseas vaccine domestically.

Some estimates put developing a new vaccine at 18 months away. But Professor Graham Le Gros, director of the Wellington-based Malaghan Institute, reckons it will take two years ‘‘if it all goes well’’.

Once developed, the vaccine would need to be manufactured to meet global demand, which could take several more years.

‘‘People think a vaccine means something you can get at your GP or your pharmacist, and we are a long way from that,’’ he said.

Le Gros said which nation got the vaccine would come down to a mix of money, politics and need. ‘‘You don’t have to be Einstein to realise we will be at the bottom of that list.’’

Dr James Ussher, a senior lecturer in microbiology and immunology at Otago University, said companies were scaling up their production but the global demand for vaccines would still outstrip supply.

Ussher said many overseas vaccine manufacturers were likely to vaccinate their own country before they looked to export. ‘‘America has put some money into the Oxford [University] vaccine to scale up production, on the proviso they will be taking the first 300 million doses.’’

Vaccinologist and associate professor at Auckland University Dr Helen Petousis-Harris said ideally the vaccine would be distributed based on greatest need but, even then, New Zealand would fare poorly.

‘‘But there are a lot of complexities there with who has made the vaccine and how they make it available for distribution globally, [and] who pays.’’

At the same time, the vaccine would need to be deployed where its effects could be ‘‘intensively monitored’’.

She also said any New Zealand effort would need to look out for our Pacific Island neighbours.

Research, Science and Technology Minister Megan Woods said the Ministry of Health, Medsafe, Pharmac, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade were working on a vaccine strategy. This would involve the research and scientific community, and potential vaccine manufacturers.

The Government has given Wellington biotech firm Availia Immunotherapies $100,000 funding to research the development, testing and manufacturing of a potential vaccine.

The company is building on research from the University of Otago, Victoria University and Malaghan Institute into an inactivated Sars-CoV-2 vaccine.

Ussher said that if local efforts were not successful, contributing to international research to find a vaccine would help ensure access and the right to manufacture in New Zealand under licence.

Le Gros said New Zealand could not afford to wait for an overseas solution. ‘‘It’s going to be a real challenge.’’