Governments and pharmaceutical companies alike must work together in combating the ‘virus of intellectual property (IP) monopolies over COVID-19 vaccines – which further exacerbates inequality and lack of access to vaccines for vulnerable groups. That was the uptake of a group of experts speaking at a webinar Wednesday on “The Virus of IP Monopoly Capitalism”’ […] Continue reading ->
Sanofi and GSK will test their two-dose SARS-CoV2 vaccine candidate as a booster for other vaccines during its phase 3 trial, following a phase 2 trial that showed that it triggered a strong neutralizing antibody response in people previously vaccinated. Those who had already been vaccinated showed a strong response after one jab, indicating that […] Continue reading ->
Delaying the second dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine by 12 weeks could generate antibody responses in those over the age of 80 more than threefold, found a pre-print study published on Friday. The study, conducted by the University of Birmingham and Public Health England, is the first to directly compare the immune response derived […] Continue reading ->
A group of 18 prominent scientists, primarily based in the United States, have called for further investigations into the origins of the SARS-CoV2 virus, including that it could have been created in the Wuhan Institute of Virology lab, in a letter published on Thursday in the journal Science. The letter, organised by David Relman, Professor […] Continue reading ->
Limitations in COVID-19 testing capacity and surveillance—as well as uneven demand for testing—are likely masking the true severity of COVID-19 on the African continent, fueling the dangerous myth that much of Africa has been unscathed by COVID-19. Test positivity rates were above 10% across many African Union (AU) member states during the second wave—substantially higher […] Continue reading ->
A Canadian pharmaceutical company, Biolyse, has agreed to provide Bolivia with 15 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine – as long as the Canadian government gives it a compulsory license to manufacture the vaccine. In March, Johnson & Johnson rejected an application by Biolyse for a voluntary license to make a generic […] Continue reading ->
The draft of a landmark resolution to establish a global “Pandemic Treaty” will be put to World Health Organization (WHO) member states this week in preparation for the World Health Assembly beginning 24 May, Jaouad Mahjour, WHO Assistant Director-General Emergency Preparedness, told a panel in Geneva Monday. The proposal for the Pandemic Treaty – […] Continue reading ->
In a far-reaching statement, WHO and the International Coalition of Medicines Regulatory Authorities (ICMRA) called on the pharma industry to provide much wider access to clinical data for all new medicines and vaccines approved, or under review, and even those that had been rejected. “Clinical trial reports should be published without redaction of confidential information […] Continue reading ->
Pfizer on Friday became the first pharma company to apply for full approval of its COVID-19 vaccine from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA. The announcement also followed the publication of two studies which found that the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine is highly effective against two major SARS-CoV2 variants of concern. Moderna plans to follow suit […] Continue reading ->
Almost seven million people are estimated to have died of COVID-19 globally based on “excess mortality” statistics, according to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), which announced on Friday that it would now be using these statistics rather than official death rates. This “major change in how we think about the number of […] Continue reading ->
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