Chesterfield facility part of race to make COVID-19 vaccine
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ)
A suburban St. Louis pharmaceutical manufacturing operation will play a key role in the development of a COVID-19 vaccine, Gov. Mike Parson said Thursday.
Parson appeared at his daily COVID-19 briefing in the Missouri Capitol alongside Christine Smith, the head of drug manufacturer Pfizer's Chesterfield research and development facility.
You can watch a replay of the briefing in the media player below.
The facility will play a key role in the race for a vaccine to fight COVID-19's spread, creating templates for the process, Smith said. The St. Louis facility is one of three in the country taking part in the trial, she said.
Smith said U.S. trials started this week and the first experimental COVID-19 vaccine doses in the world were administered in Germany last week. The U.S. trials will involve giving different doses of potential vaccines to people in different age groups, Smith said.
The work is happening at an "unprecedented pace," Smith said.
"In a short order of time, we worked closely with regulatory authorities and accelerated what would typically have taken months into weeks, and ... weeks into a matter of days," Smith said.
A team at the Chesterfield facility is part of work taking place to increase Pfizer's manufacturing capacity. The company hopes to be making millions of doses by late this year and hundreds of millions next year if trials are successful, Smith said.
Parson stressed that a vaccine is essential in his plan to fully reopen the state.
"For Missouri to feel safe going forward we will need to develop a COVID-19 vaccine," Parson said.
Parson also reflected on visits Thursday morning to Hy-Vee and Oscheln stores in Jefferson City. He said his trip showed him that employers, workers and the public are taking proper precautions to slow down the spread of novel coronavirus.
The governor said the state's numbers continue to show progress and that the number of cases in St. Louis -- the state's worst area for COVID-19 -- is flattening. Hospitalizations statewide are down 17 percent from their peak last month, he said.
"We remain confident that we have met our four pillars (of recovery) and we will continue to monitor this data each and every day," Parson said.
The state health department added more than 200 new COVID-19 cases and 22 virus-related deaths on Thursday. The deaths marked one of the highest single-day totals in Missouri since the pandemic began.
Parson said he will forgo a daily briefing Friday because of travel to southwest Missouri.
