Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and senior government ministers have rebuffed claims that former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd played a role in expediting shipments of Pfizer vaccine to Australia. This comes after the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) alleged on July 13 that Rudd had met with Pfizer Chairman Albert Bourla on June 30, and it was this meeting that helped break a deadlock between the Australian government and the company. “I was simply asked by members of the Australian business community, particularly in the United States, to do what I could to try and accelerate the delivery of Pfizer to Australia,” Rudd told ABC radio on July 13. “I was just doing my bit; what material effect it had at the end of the day, I don’t know, and we probably will never know,” he added. The former prime minister also claimed that he was told by senior business figures that …