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3.53am BST

Pfizer has released a formal statement to hose down suggestions that “any third party or individual” was involved in vaccine supply agreements.

Here it is, in full:

Recent media reports suggesting that any third party or individual has had any role in contractual agreements reached between Pfizer and the Australian government are inaccurate. The only two parties involved in these agreements are Pfizer and the Australian government.

Pfizer is committed to delivering 40 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine to Australia over 2021. Pfizer has met its contractual commitments to date and is on track to deliver the remaining doses by the end of the year.

3.50am BST

The federal health minister, Greg Hunt, has told Ray Hadley on 2GB that he “chuckled” when he read the ABC’s (frankly) astonishing report that Kevin Rudd was enlisted by senior business leaders to help secure more vaccines from Pfizer.

(Somehow I suspect the reaction wasn’t quite that jovial, but anyway).

Look, I did chuckle when I saw the story. We received the letter after we’d done the work with Pfizer and we knew the outcome was likely to be exactly as it was of moving to the million a week.

And that we did, as, as a group, say, well, we know that once the government announces it that letter from the former prime minister’s likely to be put out there. But we appreciate all of the, the help, even if it hasn’t added to the outcome.

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Source: The Guardian