Stop ‘Hoarding’ Vaccines In Warehouses – WHO’s Top Latin American Official Calls On Rich Countries For More Donations

29/04/2021 Chandre Prince

While aid is rushed to India, WHO’s Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) has called out rich countries to donate more “desperately needed” coronavirus vaccines to Latin America and the Caribbean – in the face of persistently high levels of COVID-19 infections in that region, which has consistently been one of the hardest hit by the […] Continue reading ->

Could A New COVID-19 Treatment Be The Answer To Combating The Pandemic In Africa?

27/04/2021 Geoffrey Kamadi

NAIROBI – A new drug combination therapy to fight COVID-19, unveiled on Tuesday, will be tested in a multi-country clinical trial that is already ongoing in Africa. The drugs nitazoxanide and ciclesonide will be used in the ANTICOV clinical trials testing treatments for mild to moderate COVID cases across groups in 13 African countries. A […] Continue reading ->

European Union Sues AstraZeneca Over Delayed Coronavirus Vaccine Deliveries

27/04/2021 Chandre Prince

The European Union (EU) is suing coronavirus vaccine manufacturer AstraZeneca over an alleged breach of its vaccine supply contract and for not having a “reliable” plan to ensure timely deliveries. The European Commission – the EU’s executive branch – said the legal action emanates from a longstanding dispute over shortfall in vaccine deliveries. The 27 […] Continue reading ->

Pharmaceutical Industry Launches Document on IP Principles Amid Push for TRIPS Waiver

26/04/2021 Kerry Cullinan

Amid a huge global push for the World Trade Organization (WTO) to waive intellectual property (IP) rights on products related to COVID-19 for the duration of the pandemic, the pharmaceutical industry launched a document on Monday – World IP Day – asserting that a “strong IP system advances public health” . According to the 10-point […] Continue reading ->

Ambitious Push to Resume Routine Immunisations to Save 50 Million Lives – COVAX Waits for Indian Vaccines

26/04/2021 Kerry Cullinan

Fifty countries have not yet resumed routine immunisations disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, affecting 228 million people – mainly children – and there have already been serious measles outbreaks in Yemen, Pakistan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, according to World Health Organization (WHO) director general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyusus. To address this, the […] Continue reading ->

The ‘Patent Bargain’, Public Good & COVID19

26/04/2021 Priti Patniak/Geneva Health Files

As the hotly contested proposal for an IP waiver on COVID-related health products comes up again for debate on Friday, 30 April at the World Trade Organization’s TRIPS Council, legal expert Hyo Yoon Kang looks at the foundations of IP law to challenge “TRIPS waiver” naysayers. Geneva Health Files [GHF]: You have argued that IP […] Continue reading ->

ACT-Accelerator Celebrates 1st Anniversary Amid COVID-19 Surge in India

23/04/2021 Kerry Cullinan

One of the few silver linings of the COVID-19 pandemic is the unprecedented collaboration of every sector of society to overcome it – best demonstrated by the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT-Accelerator), which celebrated its first anniversary on Friday. The ACT-Accelerator’s most famous pillar is the vaccine facility, COVAX, which has distributed almost 40 […] Continue reading ->

UK Study Shows Similar, Significant Reductions In COVID-19 Infections With Single Dose Of Oxford-AstraZeneca Or Pfizer-BioNTech Vaccine

23/04/2021 Raisa Santos

COVID-19 infections fell significantly – by 65% percent – after a first dose of either the Oxford-AstraZeneca or the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in a study of more than 373,000 British residents who received one of the two jabs. The first in a series of two new studies, published by the University of Oxford, found that the […] Continue reading ->

Pakistan Quietly Suspends Vaccination Of Healthcare Workers – Then Abruptly Resumes Following Media Queries

21/04/2021 Rahul Basharat Rajput & Muhammed Nadeem Chaudhry

Islamabad, Pakistan: Even as Pakistan faced an intense third wave of COVID-19, health authorities ‘silently’ suspended vaccination registration for its frontline Healthcare Workers (HCWs) for more than a month – ostensibly because of low registration and concerns about fake registrations. But following queries by Health Policy Watch on Monday, Ministry of Health officials suddenly did […] Continue reading ->

European Medicines Agency Reaffirms Benefits Of Johnson & Johnson Vaccine

21/04/2021 Chandre Prince

There is a “possible link” between the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine and very rare cases of blood clots, but the benefits of the single-dose vaccine outweigh the risks, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has announced. In a statement released on Tuesday, the EMA safety committee said that the rare, but serious blood clot disorders, […] Continue reading ->