WEBVTT - Vaccine Nationalism 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:03.120 Hi, I'm Carol Masser. This week Bloomberg Business Week magazine 0:00:03.120 --> 0:00:05.120 as a special issue with a deep dive into the 0:00:05.160 --> 0:00:08.520 path to a COVID nineteen vaccine, and that competition to 0:00:08.600 --> 0:00:13.160 develop a vaccine has spurred a phenomenon known as vaccine nationalism, 0:00:13.200 --> 0:00:17.040 the jocking of governments to secure doses of promising candidates 0:00:17.040 --> 0:00:20.640 for their citizens with bragging rights and economies at stake. 0:00:20.800 --> 0:00:24.079 Not everyone is playing nice. China and Russia have tried 0:00:24.079 --> 0:00:27.480 to hack various Western vaccine efforts, according to the intelligence 0:00:27.480 --> 0:00:31.400 services of both the US and its allies. Some nations 0:00:31.400 --> 0:00:35.120 and pharmaceutical companies are even planning for the possibility that 0:00:35.240 --> 0:00:39.520 vaccines or their components might be blocked from crossing borders, 0:00:39.600 --> 0:00:43.040 and as borders become barriers, many more people will, no 0:00:43.159 --> 0:00:47.200 doubt suffer from a preventable disease. In game theory, there's 0:00:47.200 --> 0:00:50.240 a puzzle called the prisoner's dilemma, which provides lessons on 0:00:50.280 --> 0:00:53.040 the choices people make as a weigh self interest and 0:00:53.080 --> 0:00:57.840 cooperation of the various combinations. The best overall outcome is 0:00:57.920 --> 0:01:01.480 each prisoners to hang mom and dealing with lesser charges. 0:01:01.800 --> 0:01:04.520 What's happening now with the vaccine race is the prisoner's dilemma. 0:01:04.600 --> 0:01:08.360 In action, nations are shoeing the best case of cooperation 0:01:08.440 --> 0:01:12.760 for the risk of going it alone. Vaccine nationalism. The 0:01:12.800 --> 0:01:16.559 world's governments are vying to secure doses before their peers can. 0:01:17.319 --> 0:01:23.560 It's already getting ugly by Vernon Silver. In a valley 0:01:23.640 --> 0:01:27.360 south of Rome where tourists rarely tread, the scene playing 0:01:27.400 --> 0:01:30.000 out on a recent morning was reminiscent of the climax 0:01:30.040 --> 0:01:33.480 of Star Wars, with the rebel pilots preparing for battle 0:01:34.160 --> 0:01:38.160 just past the vineyards. Inside a sprawling modern pharmaceutical complex, 0:01:38.560 --> 0:01:41.560 Clutches of young women and men marched down corridors in 0:01:41.680 --> 0:01:46.560 steel toed boots, mint green jumpsuits and surgical masks. One 0:01:46.600 --> 0:01:50.120 group of cadets watched a training video. Another took turns 0:01:50.120 --> 0:01:55.000 assembling and disassembling equipment. Behind glass walls, droid like robots 0:01:55.080 --> 0:01:59.520 rolled around performing automated tasks. This Italian version of a 0:01:59.560 --> 0:02:03.240 rebel bay ace is an outpost of an American company, Cattalent. 0:02:03.920 --> 0:02:07.680 The death star is COVID nineteen, which devastated this country 0:02:07.720 --> 0:02:11.680 in early spring. Cattalent has a contract to fill tiny 0:02:11.680 --> 0:02:14.239 glass vials with as many as four hundred and fifty 0:02:14.240 --> 0:02:18.600 million doses of the Oxford University Astra Zenica vaccine, which 0:02:18.680 --> 0:02:22.160 in late May became the first coronavirus candidate to enter 0:02:22.280 --> 0:02:27.520 large scale human trials. The stakes, perils, and opportunities could 0:02:27.560 --> 0:02:31.040 hardly be higher for Italy, going from the West's first 0:02:31.160 --> 0:02:35.160 victim to potentially having within its borders almost a quarter 0:02:35.240 --> 0:02:39.320 of Earth's supply of a vaccine. If the mission succeeds, 0:02:39.600 --> 0:02:42.160 the precious horde will start piling up next month in 0:02:42.160 --> 0:02:46.160 a refrigerated warehouse at the cattle Ent plant. By early November, 0:02:46.520 --> 0:02:49.120 Italian regulators should be in a position to release the 0:02:49.160 --> 0:02:53.040 first doses to the international market. According to Mario Gardiulo, 0:02:53.480 --> 0:02:57.080 global head of biologics operations for Cattalent, which is based 0:02:57.080 --> 0:03:00.760 in Somerset, New Jersey, the nation that was hardest hit 0:03:01.120 --> 0:03:03.840 to be part of the solution is a great story, 0:03:04.080 --> 0:03:07.480 guard Julo says as he shows off the plant, located 0:03:07.520 --> 0:03:10.480 in the ancient town of a Nanni. The people here 0:03:10.520 --> 0:03:13.519 have a strong responsibility. It will be the first or 0:03:13.600 --> 0:03:16.160 one of the first, on the market. This is a race. 0:03:17.280 --> 0:03:21.600 The competition has spurred a phenomenon known as vaccine nationalism. 0:03:21.639 --> 0:03:25.080 The jockeying of governments to secure doses of promising candidates 0:03:25.120 --> 0:03:28.320 for their citizens. The means of doing that are numerous, 0:03:28.600 --> 0:03:31.360 and the field of combat is vast. There are more 0:03:31.400 --> 0:03:34.720 than one and sixty efforts under way, with twenty six 0:03:34.760 --> 0:03:37.840 and clinical evaluation as of July thirty one, according to 0:03:37.880 --> 0:03:42.080 the World Health Organization. Front Runners in final phase three 0:03:42.080 --> 0:03:47.960 trials include the Oxford vaccine, another from Moderna, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, 0:03:48.000 --> 0:03:50.960 and a third from Germany's bio in Tech, which has 0:03:51.000 --> 0:03:54.640 partnered with Fiser. All of these have investments from or 0:03:54.640 --> 0:03:57.680 purchasing agreements with the U. S Government and at least 0:03:57.720 --> 0:04:01.800 one other nation. China, Rush and starting this month, Italy 0:04:02.200 --> 0:04:06.040 are also among those with vaccine candidates being tested on humans, 0:04:06.680 --> 0:04:10.480 with bragging rights and economies at stake. Not everyone is 0:04:10.480 --> 0:04:14.080 playing nice. China and Russia have tried to hack various 0:04:14.080 --> 0:04:17.560 Western vaccine efforts. According to the intelligence services of the 0:04:17.640 --> 0:04:21.600 US and its allies, Some nations and pharmaceutical companies are 0:04:21.640 --> 0:04:25.200 planning for the possibility that vaccines or their components might 0:04:25.240 --> 0:04:28.719 be blocked from crossing borders. The contest may also be 0:04:28.760 --> 0:04:32.520 putting medical safety at risk. It normally takes years to 0:04:32.600 --> 0:04:36.480 develop a vaccine, and the compressed timelines raise concerns about 0:04:36.560 --> 0:04:41.120 leaders ambitions bending the judgment of regulators. Russia announced on 0:04:41.120 --> 0:04:44.600 August one that it will start mass inoculations in October 0:04:44.680 --> 0:04:48.400 with a vaccine that hasn't yet finished clinical trials. In 0:04:48.440 --> 0:04:51.760 the US, there are concerns, including those raised by members 0:04:51.800 --> 0:04:55.200 of Congress at a July hearing with pharmaceutical executives, that 0:04:55.320 --> 0:04:58.320 President Trump could pressure the Food and Drug Administration to 0:04:58.400 --> 0:05:02.560 cut corners as the November election years, Trump has embraced 0:05:02.600 --> 0:05:06.480 the competition with his Operation Warp Speed, which is spending 0:05:06.480 --> 0:05:08.479 as much as ten billion dollars in the hope of 0:05:08.520 --> 0:05:11.919 having some three hundred million doses of a winner available 0:05:11.920 --> 0:05:16.280 for Americans. As the deep pocketed spoiler, Trump is placing 0:05:16.320 --> 0:05:20.200 bats on almost every major Western vaccine effort. We will 0:05:20.240 --> 0:05:24.800 achieve a victory over the virus by unleashing America's scientific genius, 0:05:24.800 --> 0:05:27.880 which is what it is, Trump said during a July 0:05:28.360 --> 0:05:32.360 seven visit to a biotech facility in North Carolina. Astra 0:05:32.440 --> 0:05:35.680 Zeneca has committed to creating autonomous supply chains for the 0:05:35.720 --> 0:05:39.680 Oxford shot on four continents. A Frank acknowledgment that it 0:05:39.720 --> 0:05:42.960 isn't counting on a normal flow of goods. Because of 0:05:43.040 --> 0:05:45.680 some of the politics, there's a risk of people ordering 0:05:45.880 --> 0:05:49.840 but not letting the vaccine across country borders, says Many Pungalos, 0:05:50.200 --> 0:05:54.040 the company's head of research and development for biopharmaceuticals. We've 0:05:54.040 --> 0:05:56.880 been looking at that pretty carefully and wondering what will 0:05:56.920 --> 0:05:59.920 happen if that moment comes. So we're being very care 0:06:00.040 --> 0:06:02.760 full about trying to create independent supply chains that will 0:06:02.839 --> 0:06:06.640 enable full access to the vaccine around the world. Astra 0:06:06.720 --> 0:06:09.560 Zenica is setting up production of its two billion initial 0:06:09.600 --> 0:06:15.000 doses in Europe, Brazil, India, Russia and the US. India 0:06:15.040 --> 0:06:18.039 alone will account for half those doses, which are being 0:06:18.080 --> 0:06:21.599 made with an understanding reached with Prime Minister Nearindramodi's government 0:06:21.839 --> 0:06:24.440 that about five hundred million will stay in the country. 0:06:25.520 --> 0:06:28.760 Nations tend to flatter themselves in terms of how central 0:06:28.800 --> 0:06:32.200 they are to the action. Some Italian newspapers refer to 0:06:32.200 --> 0:06:35.920 the Oxford Shot as the Anglo Italian vaccine because of 0:06:35.960 --> 0:06:38.800 the support roles Italian companies have played in readying it 0:06:38.839 --> 0:06:43.520 for distribution. For months, advent based in Pomesia of forty 0:06:43.520 --> 0:06:46.440 five minute drive south of Rome, has been cranking out 0:06:46.480 --> 0:06:49.479 the doses Astra Zenica has been using for clinical trials 0:06:49.480 --> 0:06:53.160 in Brazil, South Africa and the UK. The production deal 0:06:53.200 --> 0:06:55.920 with Catalent was political gold for the government of Prime 0:06:55.920 --> 0:06:59.279 Minister Giuseppe Conte. It helped to abate the legal and 0:06:59.279 --> 0:07:02.720 political pressure that had been building around his administration's handling 0:07:02.720 --> 0:07:06.280 of the crisis, which has killed thirty five thousand Italians. 0:07:07.000 --> 0:07:10.280 When he announced the deal in June, Conte was able 0:07:10.320 --> 0:07:13.200 to crow Italy, which was the first in Europe to 0:07:13.200 --> 0:07:16.600 get to know this virus closely. Today has been recognized 0:07:16.640 --> 0:07:19.240 to be among the first countries to give an adequate response. 0:07:20.120 --> 0:07:23.520 Hopes for a vaccine replaced probes of the pandemic response 0:07:23.760 --> 0:07:27.080 on the nation's front pages. The moment provided a lesson 0:07:27.160 --> 0:07:30.600 in the power that even marginal victories in vaccine nationalism have. 0:07:30.880 --> 0:07:34.480 Right now, the moonshot race may determine not just who 0:07:34.520 --> 0:07:38.920 lives and dies, but which economies and governments rise and fall. 0:07:41.960 --> 0:07:45.280 Countries are eyeing one another warily in part because of 0:07:45.320 --> 0:07:48.679 how they behaved during the first wave of outbreaks starting 0:07:48.680 --> 0:07:52.880 in March. Governments blocked borders as they competed for masks, medicines, 0:07:52.920 --> 0:07:56.880 and ventilators with at least ninety jurisdictions putting restrictions on 0:07:57.000 --> 0:08:00.680 exports of protective equipment and other medical material, according to 0:08:00.720 --> 0:08:04.560 the Global Trade Alert Project at Switzerland's University of Saint Gallen. 0:08:05.400 --> 0:08:08.800 The Trump administration, for example, asked three m to stop 0:08:08.840 --> 0:08:12.040 exporting in ninety five masks to Canada and Latin America. 0:08:12.400 --> 0:08:16.560 As shortages mounted at U S hospitals. In March, Germany 0:08:16.600 --> 0:08:21.160 temporarily banned most exports of protective medical equipment. Italy then 0:08:21.200 --> 0:08:25.800 went tit for tat, seizing mask exports. China capitalized on 0:08:25.880 --> 0:08:29.560 Italy's moment of need and perceived abandonment by its allies 0:08:29.880 --> 0:08:33.479 and sent plainloads of Chinese Red Cross teams with ventilators, 0:08:33.679 --> 0:08:37.000 protective suits, and other gear. It was a classic use 0:08:37.040 --> 0:08:40.400 of soft power. Be a friend and ally. Now see 0:08:40.400 --> 0:08:44.000 how that might pay off later. The West's next rude 0:08:44.000 --> 0:08:48.000 awakening to vaccine nationalism came on May thirteenth, when the 0:08:48.040 --> 0:08:51.400 French drug maker Sinophi said Americans would likely get its 0:08:51.480 --> 0:08:54.200 vaccine before the rest of the world because the U 0:08:54.400 --> 0:08:58.080 S had financially backed early research. The U S government 0:08:58.120 --> 0:09:00.480 has the right to the largest pre order because it's 0:09:00.520 --> 0:09:04.079 invested in taking the Risk Chief executive officer Paul Hudson 0:09:04.360 --> 0:09:07.880 said in an interview with Bloomberg News the company reversed 0:09:07.880 --> 0:09:10.800 course under pressure from its home country and others, but 0:09:10.880 --> 0:09:13.840 the message was plain, put in your orders or wait 0:09:13.880 --> 0:09:17.839 in line. A second shock followed days later, when the 0:09:17.880 --> 0:09:20.920 British government announced plans to spend sixty five point five 0:09:21.000 --> 0:09:25.080 million pounds about eighty six million dollars on the Oxford 0:09:25.120 --> 0:09:28.320 tie up with Astra Zenica. This deal with Astra Zeneca 0:09:28.640 --> 0:09:31.760 means that if the Oxford University vaccine works, people in 0:09:31.800 --> 0:09:34.439 the UK will get the first access to it, said 0:09:34.440 --> 0:09:39.400 Alok Sharma, Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, 0:09:39.440 --> 0:09:42.079 in a news release which promised that as many as 0:09:42.120 --> 0:09:45.360 thirty million doses would be available in the UK by September. 0:09:46.160 --> 0:09:48.680 The moment was a wake up call in Italy. The 0:09:48.720 --> 0:09:52.240 next morning's headline in La Republica framed the announcement as 0:09:52.280 --> 0:09:56.000 nearly a betrayal. London reverses thirty million doses of the 0:09:56.120 --> 0:10:00.200 vaccine born between Oxford and Pomesia. The first word of 0:10:00.200 --> 0:10:03.000 the story quoted Sharma saying the UK would get the 0:10:03.000 --> 0:10:06.120 shot first. It is not clear what will go to Italy. 0:10:06.280 --> 0:10:09.839 The article added. Behind the scenes, the Italian government began 0:10:09.880 --> 0:10:13.680 its own negotiations with European Allies and Astra Zenica to 0:10:13.720 --> 0:10:18.120 put in an order. Meanwhile, Trump's spending spree spurred fears 0:10:18.160 --> 0:10:21.160 in Germany that the US was angling to buy Kuvak, 0:10:21.600 --> 0:10:24.280 one of the country's leaders in the vaccine race, or 0:10:24.320 --> 0:10:28.160 its technology, to head off the Americans. Berlin agreed in 0:10:28.240 --> 0:10:30.640 June to buy about twenty three percent of the company 0:10:30.679 --> 0:10:33.800 for three hundred million euros about three hundred and fifty 0:10:33.840 --> 0:10:38.080 five million dollars. Germany is not for sale, Economy Minister 0:10:38.200 --> 0:10:41.640 Peter Altmeyer said at a press conference. We aren't selling 0:10:41.640 --> 0:10:44.400 off the family silver. I am a great supporter of 0:10:44.440 --> 0:10:47.319 a global free market economy, but there are certain areas 0:10:47.360 --> 0:10:51.040 where our position must be very clear. Germany was right 0:10:51.080 --> 0:10:54.720 to understand Trump's government as putting Allies second. In his 0:10:54.800 --> 0:10:57.880 July visit to the North Carolina plant, the President laid 0:10:57.880 --> 0:11:00.839 out a vaccine nationalism doctrine that boils down to this 0:11:01.360 --> 0:11:05.079 America first, maybe some other countries later, and it's all 0:11:05.160 --> 0:11:08.800 China's fault. We're mass producing all of the most promising 0:11:08.880 --> 0:11:11.840 vaccine candidates in advance, so that on the day one 0:11:11.880 --> 0:11:14.480 that it's approved, it will be available to the American 0:11:14.520 --> 0:11:18.040 people immediately, he said, and we'll probably have a lot 0:11:18.080 --> 0:11:20.320 for a lot of other people throughout the world. The 0:11:20.360 --> 0:11:24.280 world is suffering from this China virus. Brazil's plan to 0:11:24.320 --> 0:11:27.520 produce the Oxford vaccine for its own population could give 0:11:27.559 --> 0:11:31.520 a boost to President Jayre Bolsonaro himself recovering from COVID 0:11:31.600 --> 0:11:35.320 nineteen as he presides over the world's second worst outbreak 0:11:35.520 --> 0:11:39.839 while simultaneously downplaying its harm. The two and eighty seven 0:11:39.840 --> 0:11:43.240 million dollar deal the Health ministry announced in June foresees 0:11:43.240 --> 0:11:46.320 Brazil taking delivery of thirty point four million doses in 0:11:46.360 --> 0:11:50.720 December and January, and then, following a technology transfer, making 0:11:50.800 --> 0:11:56.360 seventy million doses domestically. Russia has taken some unorthodox shortcuts. 0:11:56.720 --> 0:12:00.400 The government's planned mass inoculations will use a vaccine developed 0:12:00.400 --> 0:12:05.000 by the state run Gamalaieya Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology 0:12:05.040 --> 0:12:08.920 in Moscow, for which it used fifty military personnel as 0:12:08.960 --> 0:12:12.960 subjects for its first trial phase. Scores of Russia's business 0:12:13.000 --> 0:12:16.160 and political elite have also been given early access to 0:12:16.200 --> 0:12:21.040 the experimental vaccine. Bloomberg News reported in July as early 0:12:21.040 --> 0:12:25.840 as April, top executives at companies including Aluminum Giant, United Russol, 0:12:26.160 --> 0:12:29.680 as well as tycoons and government officials, began getting shots. 0:12:30.440 --> 0:12:34.559 At the same time. Russia has denied the West's hacking allegations, 0:12:35.000 --> 0:12:37.640 in part saying it doesn't need to steal any technology 0:12:37.679 --> 0:12:40.520 because it's already signed with Astra Zeneca to become a 0:12:40.559 --> 0:12:44.160 regional production hub for the Oxford vaccine. Under the deal, 0:12:44.559 --> 0:12:48.760 our Farm, one of Russia's largest pharmaceutical companies, will make 0:12:48.800 --> 0:12:51.319 and export doses of the Oxford shot to more than 0:12:51.400 --> 0:12:55.240 thirty countries, including in the Balkans, the Middle East, and 0:12:55.360 --> 0:12:59.960 some former Soviet republics. Even the Canadian government is making 0:13:00.040 --> 0:13:03.320 sure it can make and keep an inoculation within its borders. 0:13:03.880 --> 0:13:07.439 It's spending forty four million Canadian dollars about thirty three 0:13:07.480 --> 0:13:10.800 million dollars to upgrade a facility in Montreal so it 0:13:10.840 --> 0:13:14.280 can make vaccines, and has set up partnerships with researchers 0:13:14.280 --> 0:13:19.160 at home and abroad, including China's Cancino Biologics. Canada is 0:13:19.240 --> 0:13:23.160 prioritizing domestic capacity to manufacture a vaccine candidate when one 0:13:23.200 --> 0:13:27.520 becomes available. The government's Innovation, Science and Economic Development Department 0:13:27.600 --> 0:13:31.800 said in a statement. Once fully operational, the Montreal facility 0:13:31.840 --> 0:13:34.360 will produce up to a hundred thousand doses a month. 0:13:34.960 --> 0:13:38.800 This investment and research collaboration will help ensure that Canadians 0:13:38.800 --> 0:13:42.440 and frontline workers have access to potential vaccines as soon 0:13:42.520 --> 0:13:48.280 as possible. In game theory, there's a puzzle called the 0:13:48.320 --> 0:13:51.920 prisoner's dilemma, which provides lessons on the choices people make 0:13:52.240 --> 0:13:55.960 as they weigh self interest and cooperation. The premise is 0:13:56.000 --> 0:13:58.640 that two members of a gang are imprisoned in separate 0:13:58.679 --> 0:14:02.520 jail cells where they can't communicate with each other. A prosecutor, 0:14:02.559 --> 0:14:05.520 who doesn't have evidence to convict either of a serious crime, 0:14:05.960 --> 0:14:09.199 gives each prisoner the same deal. Snitch on your friend 0:14:09.240 --> 0:14:12.320 and you go free, unless he snitches on you two 0:14:13.200 --> 0:14:16.720 of the various combinations. The best overall outcome is each 0:14:16.760 --> 0:14:21.160 prisoner staying mum and dealing with lesser charges. What's happening 0:14:21.200 --> 0:14:24.520 now with the vaccine race is the prisoner's dilemma in action, 0:14:24.880 --> 0:14:28.120 says Thomas Bally, Key, director of the Global Health Program 0:14:28.160 --> 0:14:31.600 at the Council on Foreign Relations, and Chad Brown, a 0:14:31.640 --> 0:14:35.880 senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International economics, nations 0:14:35.920 --> 0:14:38.840 are issuing the best case of cooperation for the risk 0:14:38.920 --> 0:14:42.720 of going it alone. Vaccine nationalism is not just morally 0:14:42.760 --> 0:14:47.400 and ethically reprehensible, it is contrary to every country's economic, strategic, 0:14:47.440 --> 0:14:50.320 and health interests. Bolly Key and Brown right in a 0:14:50.320 --> 0:14:55.120 Foreign Affairs article titled the Tragedy of Vaccine Nationalism. As 0:14:55.160 --> 0:14:58.680 countries speed to secure their own early access to vaccines, 0:14:58.720 --> 0:15:01.520 the authors say they're failing to slow the spread of 0:15:01.520 --> 0:15:07.000 the virus elsewhere, fostering supply chain disruptions, inefficiently spurring economies, 0:15:07.240 --> 0:15:12.720 and possibly sparking geopolitical conflict. Rich countries are responding to 0:15:12.760 --> 0:15:16.720 these concerns by supporting the Kovaks Facility, a mechanism that's 0:15:16.800 --> 0:15:20.040 raising money to guarantee access to vaccines for some ninety 0:15:20.160 --> 0:15:24.480 lower income countries. At least seventy five countries say they'll 0:15:24.520 --> 0:15:28.440 support the Kovacs facility, but they're simultaneously putting their own 0:15:28.440 --> 0:15:32.960 interests first. The European Union, for example, is supporting global 0:15:33.000 --> 0:15:37.240 initiatives for equitable vaccine access, but isn't participating in such 0:15:37.280 --> 0:15:40.560 a program for its own purchases. It's taking its pool 0:15:40.600 --> 0:15:44.080 of money to place vaccine orders for member states The UK, 0:15:44.440 --> 0:15:47.360 in turn, has decided not to participate in an EU 0:15:47.480 --> 0:15:50.160 purchasing pool because the government wants to be able to 0:15:50.160 --> 0:15:53.920 negotiate its own deals. Drill down further, and there's the 0:15:53.920 --> 0:15:56.800 deal that's leading Italy to bottle from four hundred million 0:15:56.880 --> 0:15:59.200 to four hundred and fifty million doses of the Oxford 0:15:59.240 --> 0:16:02.640 vaccine in its four country packed with France, Germany and 0:16:02.680 --> 0:16:06.440 the Netherlands. They're in it together, but exactly how and 0:16:06.520 --> 0:16:10.640 when those doses get distributed hasn't yet been announced. Step 0:16:10.680 --> 0:16:12.880 back for a moment, though, and there's something to be 0:16:12.920 --> 0:16:15.480 said for a nation and its people working together to 0:16:15.560 --> 0:16:18.440 dig out of a crisis, especially if their efforts can 0:16:18.480 --> 0:16:20.960 help the rest of the world too. That was the 0:16:20.960 --> 0:16:25.600 case with biochemists Stephanie DeMarco, the scientific director at Advent. 0:16:26.280 --> 0:16:29.320 DeMarco became a crucial part of the Oxford effort in 0:16:29.320 --> 0:16:31.880 the earliest days of the outbreak, working out of a 0:16:31.920 --> 0:16:34.680 one thousand square meter production facility that was once a 0:16:34.720 --> 0:16:38.600 staff jim for Pharmer Giant Merk, the campus's previous owner. 0:16:39.320 --> 0:16:42.920 In early February, a full month before Italy went into lockdown, 0:16:43.200 --> 0:16:46.640 Oxford's Jenner Institute signed a deal with Advent to produce 0:16:46.760 --> 0:16:50.680 doses of its vaccine. Having worked with the Oxford scientists 0:16:50.680 --> 0:16:54.840 on previous vaccines, DeMarco began familiar processes for the arrival 0:16:54.880 --> 0:16:57.440 of the seed stock that would allow her team to 0:16:57.480 --> 0:17:01.120 produce thousands of doses for Oxford's clinical t misals. In 0:17:01.160 --> 0:17:04.920 the weeks that followed, Italy became the first coronavirus epicenter 0:17:04.960 --> 0:17:09.640 outside China. Businesses around the world shuttered, but DeMarco's team 0:17:09.680 --> 0:17:12.600 of about twenty five women and men kept working as 0:17:12.600 --> 0:17:17.359 part of a government designated essential industry. After weeks of preparation, 0:17:17.720 --> 0:17:21.160 Oxford chipped the precious seed stock. The arrival on March 0:17:21.200 --> 0:17:24.480 twenty three of the samples, totaling just a few millileaters 0:17:24.480 --> 0:17:28.080 in fewer than ten vials packed in dry ice, set 0:17:28.119 --> 0:17:31.920 in motion a NonStop process. There were no spare days, 0:17:31.960 --> 0:17:36.520 DeMarco says. They worked Saturdays and Sundays and nervously scanned 0:17:36.520 --> 0:17:40.639 headlines about small pockets of local infections. During that time, 0:17:40.920 --> 0:17:44.560 DeMarco was in daily touch with colleagues at Oxford. With 0:17:44.680 --> 0:17:48.320 that seed stock, Advent made about three leaders of vaccine, 0:17:48.640 --> 0:17:53.040 yielding thirteen thousand doses. On May, the team sent its 0:17:53.080 --> 0:17:56.520 first chipment in about four hundred multi dose vials to 0:17:56.600 --> 0:18:00.800 Oxford in temperature controlled styrofoam boxes that kept them between 0:18:00.880 --> 0:18:04.960 two degrees and eight degrees celsius. Eight days later, British 0:18:05.000 --> 0:18:08.879 regulators released that first batch to the Oxford scientists. That 0:18:09.040 --> 0:18:12.800 evening a Thursday, they began injecting the advent doses into 0:18:12.840 --> 0:18:16.720 the arms of trial volunteers. I met DeMarco the next 0:18:16.760 --> 0:18:19.760 morning during a visit to the Palmisia lab. She wore 0:18:19.800 --> 0:18:22.199 a surgical mask as she entered a conference room for 0:18:22.200 --> 0:18:26.600 the interview and squirted sanitizer from a dispenser onto her hands. 0:18:26.640 --> 0:18:29.240 She was practically giddy with the news that the vaccine 0:18:29.280 --> 0:18:32.440 candidate her team had made had started coursing through British 0:18:32.520 --> 0:18:36.439 veins just hours earlier. For the next hour, DeMarco was 0:18:36.480 --> 0:18:39.320 all business until I asked which moment in the months 0:18:39.320 --> 0:18:42.000 of work had meant the most to her. She paused 0:18:42.600 --> 0:18:45.080 Because of the mask. I couldn't see her whole expression, 0:18:45.359 --> 0:18:48.760 but her eyes turned glassy with tears the filling. She 0:18:48.840 --> 0:18:52.159 said that moment at about nine pm on May fourth, 0:18:52.400 --> 0:18:55.760 when technicians began the semi automated process of transferring the 0:18:55.800 --> 0:18:59.200 precious vaccine into glass fials, meant she and her team 0:18:59.280 --> 0:19:01.960 had threaded the needle at a sprint. There was a 0:19:02.000 --> 0:19:05.080 lot of tension that something could go wrong, DeMarco said. 0:19:05.680 --> 0:19:08.840 Italian politicians might be paying tribute to the national effort, 0:19:09.200 --> 0:19:12.320 but for DeMarco and her team, which includes scientists and 0:19:12.359 --> 0:19:15.640 technicians from all over the world, her story of Italian 0:19:15.680 --> 0:19:19.080 perseverance had been one of cooperation that she expects will 0:19:19.119 --> 0:19:26.639 save lives everywhere. At Catalant's phil and finish facility, Gardiulo 0:19:26.760 --> 0:19:30.399 says he has no interest in promoting vaccine nationalism. The 0:19:30.480 --> 0:19:33.040 threat of cross border hijings is real enough, he says 0:19:33.440 --> 0:19:37.119 that he's taken steps to mitigate possible disruptions. Take the 0:19:37.160 --> 0:19:41.240 supply of glass files. Globally, Vaccine producers are braced for 0:19:41.240 --> 0:19:44.080 a potential shortage of the bottles, which are made of 0:19:44.080 --> 0:19:47.600 a special glass Astra Zeneca has mitigated the risk in 0:19:47.720 --> 0:19:51.240 part by having contractors packed ten doses into each multi 0:19:51.280 --> 0:19:54.760 dose vial. For Gardiulo, that was just a first step 0:19:55.280 --> 0:19:58.520 on the ground in Italy. Allies. Border blocking of material 0:19:58.600 --> 0:20:01.280 in the pandemics early days is still a fresh memory, 0:20:01.680 --> 0:20:03.760 so he reasoned he'd need to lock in a vial 0:20:03.800 --> 0:20:07.440 supply wholly within the country. He turned to a company 0:20:07.480 --> 0:20:12.040 in Italy's northwest, Sophiaria Bertolini, but he had to be careful. 0:20:12.400 --> 0:20:15.920 The company obtains its specialty glass from a German glassmaker. 0:20:16.320 --> 0:20:20.000 Before he could assure Astra Zenica that Sophiaria Bertolini could 0:20:20.000 --> 0:20:23.960 supply the vials, Gardjiulo did due diligence on the bottlemaker's 0:20:24.000 --> 0:20:27.840 horde of raw German glass. They told us their inventories, 0:20:27.960 --> 0:20:31.040 he says, only once he was assured there was enough 0:20:31.080 --> 0:20:35.359 on Italian soil. Was the vile buying deal ago. Now, 0:20:35.600 --> 0:20:38.560 as he hires one employees and trains them on the 0:20:38.560 --> 0:20:42.000 bottling line, Catalent is awaiting the arrival as soon as 0:20:42.040 --> 0:20:46.320 September of massive bags of the vaccine drug substance being 0:20:46.320 --> 0:20:50.080 produced elsewhere in Europe. Once the drug substance is available, 0:20:50.320 --> 0:20:53.119 there will be a supply chain in Italy because everything 0:20:53.160 --> 0:20:57.080 after that will be done in Italy. Formulation, filling, packaging, 0:20:57.160 --> 0:21:01.080 he says, those are the processes. Cattle lens, jumpsuit clad 0:21:01.080 --> 0:21:04.800 workers are preparing for adding final ingredients to the mix, 0:21:05.240 --> 0:21:08.520 pumping it into the filling line of sterilized bottles, moving 0:21:08.520 --> 0:21:11.760 the cargo into an inspection machine that scrutinizes each vial 0:21:11.840 --> 0:21:15.119 with nine cameras from different angles, and then racking the 0:21:15.240 --> 0:21:18.480 vials into boxes that are ready for transport. As guard 0:21:18.560 --> 0:21:21.760 Julo gives a walk through of the stages, two engineers 0:21:21.800 --> 0:21:24.320 at the end of a long corridor pour over poster 0:21:24.440 --> 0:21:27.480 size float charts that map the steps the machines will 0:21:27.560 --> 0:21:31.879 go through. Once the machines start, they'll go almost non stop, 0:21:32.280 --> 0:21:35.600 cranking out twenty four thousand vials per hour around the clock. 0:21:36.560 --> 0:21:39.639 As batches are completed, they'll be moved to a refrigerated 0:21:39.640 --> 0:21:43.159 warehouse in the Catalent complex and stacked on aluminum and 0:21:43.200 --> 0:21:47.800 plastic palettes, ready for regulatory approvals and shipping. Guard Julo 0:21:47.920 --> 0:21:51.360 says he's sure the government will fast track any bureaucratic steps. 0:21:51.880 --> 0:21:55.040 Among the last of those, the Superior Institute of Health 0:21:55.080 --> 0:21:58.040 will decide whether to release the finished product for export. 0:21:59.040 --> 0:22:02.919 While there are no mines, this scientific process has been politicized. 0:22:03.280 --> 0:22:06.280 How it plays out could determine whether Italy is perceived 0:22:06.280 --> 0:22:09.239 as getting the vaccine first, or in the style of 0:22:09.320 --> 0:22:13.560 Chinese soft power, being a European hero for quickly distributing 0:22:13.560 --> 0:22:18.199 the supply. In Italian politics, However, there are hents that 0:22:18.240 --> 0:22:21.040 the leadership expects its citizens to be first in line, 0:22:21.720 --> 0:22:24.520 even if all official statements about the deal portrayed as 0:22:24.560 --> 0:22:27.680 being for Europeans, and the EU has taken a role 0:22:27.720 --> 0:22:33.200 in managing the program. Health Minister Roberto Speranza has repeatedly said, 0:22:33.400 --> 0:22:36.320 including in a speech to Parliament, that if all goes well, 0:22:36.560 --> 0:22:39.199 some sixty million doses will be ready before the end 0:22:39.240 --> 0:22:42.480 of the year. That number is roughly equal to Catalant's 0:22:42.480 --> 0:22:46.840 capacity on the current schedule. It also matches the population 0:22:46.920 --> 0:22:50.800 of Italy. Yes, these doses are meant for Europe, but 0:22:50.920 --> 0:22:53.960 Italians who are casual listeners to the news could be 0:22:54.040 --> 0:22:57.200 forgiven for assuming that the first batch is going entirely 0:22:57.240 --> 0:23:02.800 to them. With Stephanie Bigger, thanks so much for listening. 0:23:02.880 --> 0:23:04.840 Check out that story and more of this week's special 0:23:04.880 --> 0:23:07.920 issue on the Path to a COVID nineteen vaccine, including 0:23:07.920 --> 0:23:10.439 one on merk slow and steady strategy and another on 0:23:10.480 --> 0:23:14.200 the weird science behind it all. Find the issue on newsstands, online, 0:23:14.240 --> 0:23:16.200 up Bloomberg dot com, and of course, always on the 0:23:16.240 --> 0:23:19.440 Bloomberg terminal. Also tune into Jason Kelly and My Daily 0:23:19.560 --> 0:23:22.280 radio show Monday through Friday two p m. Wall Street 0:23:22.280 --> 0:23:24.520 Time on Bloomberg Radio, and be sure to check out 0:23:24.560 --> 0:23:28.280 our podcast feed wherever you download your podcasts. I'm Carol Masser.