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If ongoing work pans out and approvals are given, a Pfizer Inc. research and development facility in Chesterfield could help manufacture a vaccine for COVID-19.
The Missouri site is one of three owned by Pfizer in the U.S. that's been selected as an initial manufacturing center for a vaccine.
While Gov. Mike Parson continued to be encouraged Thursday by data showing the prevalence of COVID-19 is declining in the state and the hospital system is prepared for a possible surge in new cases, he said, "For Missouri to feel safe going forward, we will need to develop a COVID-19 vaccine."
As of Thursday afternoon, there have been 9,431 reported cases of COVID-19 in Missouri since the first case was announced in early March, with 417 deaths, according to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services.
There is not yet a vaccine against the disease, but human trials by Pfizer and its partner BioNTech on a vaccine began in the U.S. this week, with dosing of a first cohort in Germany having been done last week, Christine Smith said.
Smith is head of the Pfizer Biotherapeutics and Pharmaceutical Sciences Department, and site head of Pfizer's research and development facility in Chesterfield.
BioNTech is a German pharmaceutical company. Based on its website, the company had been focused before the pandemic on using mRNA technology to develop new therapies for cancer.
Smith said mRNA technology is the basis for the vaccine in development.
In short, such a vaccine would convey genetic information to generate an immune response to the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19, letting the body develop a defense against the virus.
"We are currently investigating whether the vaccine candidates we are studying will be safe and effective in creating this immune response against COVID-19," Smith said.
She said each of four vaccine candidates is being tested at three different doses, and among two different age populations.
Pfizer is far from alone in its search for a vaccine, working among other companies, and universities.
"It is our sincere belief that to beat this pandemic, it will take science and creativity, along with the determined will of passionate researchers," Smith said.
To put the genetic pieces of a vaccine together in the correct order, a template is needed, she said.
That template would be needed for every manufacturing run of the vaccine, and the Chesterfield facility will manufacture the template, Smith said.
Other components of vaccine production would be at facilities in Massachusetts and Michigan, as well as another in Belgium.
Pfizer is also working to scale up manufacturing capacity and distribution infrastructure to be ready to make a vaccine available as quickly as possible, if one is successful in clinical trials and is approved by regulators, Smith said.
"In a short order of time, we worked closely with regulatory authorities and accelerated what typically would have taken months into weeks, and weeks into a matter of days, in order to rapidly and safely enter (clinical trials)," she said.
She said many steps are being done in parallel fashion, rather than the usual sequential manner, which gives the potential - "subject to technical success and regulatory approvals" - to supply millions of vaccine doses by the end of 2020, and "rapidly scale up to produce hundreds of millions of doses in 2021."
Through two existing production sites in Germany, BioNTech also plans "to ramp up its production capacity to provide further capacities for a global supply of the potential vaccine," a news release from Parson's office added.
"All Missourians should be proud of the fact that so much of the process development work on this vaccine is happening here in Missouri," Smith said.