The World Health Organization (WHO) Europe region sidestepped criticism of Denmark’s decision to permanently stop administering the AstraZeneca vaccine, saying the country’s low population numbers and low COVID-19 positivity rate of under 1% allowed for a lot of room to manoeuvre. Denmark’s low rate of infections gives the country manoeuvring room in terms of their […] Continue reading ->
A new partnership between Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations(CEPI), Africa CDC and the African Union Commission to enhance vaccine research, development and manufacturing in Africa has been hailed as “critical” to enable countries to take ownership of their national health security. Following a two day African Vaccine Manufacturing Virtual Conference held earlier this week, the […] Continue reading ->
This past few weeks has seen a flurry of open letters from academics, politicians and NGOs dispatched to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, US President Joe Biden and other heads of state, urging their governments to support a proposal to the World Trade Organization to for a proposed “waiver” suspending intellectual property (IP) rights, and […] Continue reading ->
Patents are not the main roadblock to producing enough coronavirus vaccines for the world – rather the challenge is technology transfer with manufacturers, said a top official at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) on Wednesday.  His comments joined those of pharma voices in what seems to be a growing counter-trend to that of […] Continue reading ->
India has greenlighted Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine for emergency use following a severe shortage of vaccines against the coronavirus and a massive spike in cases, and is now poised to become one of the world’s largest manufacturing hubs for the vaccine with 50 million doses produced by July.  India’s aproval of a third COVID vaccine […] Continue reading ->
The Joe Biden-Kamala Harris administration and its allies in Congress have already posted an impressive track record of early efforts to revive and champion U.S. leadership in global health. The American Rescue Plan, proposed by President Biden in January and passed in March, includes significant emergency funding to support the international COVID-19 response through initiatives […] Continue reading ->
The World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Trade Organization (WTO) both are hosting key global meetings aimed at improving global access to COVID-19 vaccines and fair medicine prices this week behind closed doors. The WHO Fair Pricing Forum started on Tuesday and its stated aim is to activate “additional support for countries to achieve […] Continue reading ->
In an unusually bold step for the cautious global health agency, the World Health Organization has called upon countries to suspend the sale of captured live wild mammals in food markets as an emergency measure. The appeal follows on the publication of a report by a WHO-convened international team examining the origins of the SARS-CoV2 […] Continue reading ->