Indian generic drug manufacturers are poised to make the antiviral pill, molnupiravir, which halved hospitalisations in a trial of high-risk people with COVID-19. Merck, which developed molnupiravir in collaboration with Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, has awarded non-exclusive, voluntary licensing agreements to eight generic companies in India since April in anticipation of positive trial results. According to Merck, […] Continue reading ->
Following news that Sanofi, a French pharma company, will abandon its promising mRNA COVID-19 vaccine candidate, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) called for the corporation to transfer the vaccine technology and know-how to the WHO-led COVID-19 mRNA vaccine technology transfer hub in South Africa. Despite the existence of two approved mRNA vaccines and 13 candidates in advanced stages […] Continue reading ->
REGEN-COV, the antibody cocktail made famous by Donald Trump when he became ill with COVID in 2020,  was added Friday to WHO’s list of recommended drug treatments in updated COVID-19 clinical management guidelines, published Friday.  At the same time, WHO and Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) called on the US pharma firm Regeneron, which […] Continue reading ->
Countries with high COVID-19 vaccination rates have pre-purchased over two billion excess vaccine doses, limiting the supplies available for low- and middle-income countries (LMIC). This emerged from a meeting on Thursday between the heads of the International Monetary Fund, World Bank Group, World Health Organization and World Trade Organization – the multilateral Task Force – […] Continue reading ->
After months of frustrated efforts to unlock global vaccine supplies for the African continent, WHO and African Union leaders are now pinning their hopes on US President Joe Biden’s reported plan to call heads of state to a “Global Pandemic Summit” on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, which opened today, as a […] Continue reading ->
The current COVID-19 vaccines are effective enough against severe disease in the general population that boosters are “not appropriate” even for the Delta variant, according to an expert review by an international group of scientists from the World Health Organization (WHO), the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and international universities. The review, which looked […] Continue reading ->