The World Health Organization (WHO) has launched a new network, CoViNet, aimed at identifying, monitoring, and evaluating SARS-CoV-2, MERS-CoV, and emerging coronaviruses that pose significant public health risks. The program expands on the WHO COVID-19 reference laboratory network, established in January 2020, in the early days of the pandemic. Originally, the network’s primary goal was […] Continue reading ->
Pharmaceutical giants could support a formula whereby companies are guaranteed free and immediate access to pathogens with pandemic potential in exchange for binding equity agreements as part of a proposed World Health Organization (WHO) pandemic agreement, says a leading industry figure. The statement by Thomas Cueni, director-general of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers […] Continue reading ->
A much higher percentage of the population has experienced “persistent” COVID-19 infections lasting more than 30 days than initially assumed, according to new research by the University of Oxford. The study, published on February 21 in Nature, found that one to three of every 100 infections may last a month or longer. The scientists, using […] Continue reading ->
There is a global lack of preparedness and reactive responses when confronted with emerging epidemic threats, a concerning lack of investment in the R&D vaccine and therapeutics pipeline, and signs of waning focus on pandemic preparedness, according to a new report by the International Pandemic Preparedness Secretariat (IPPS). The IPPS launched its third annual report on […] Continue reading ->
COVID-19 vaccines reduced deaths due to the pandemic by at least 57%, saving more than 1.4 million lives in the WHO European Region between December 2020 and March 2023, according to a report published in medRxiv, a pre-print platform for health sciences, on Tuesday. Most of the lives saved were those of people aged 60 […] Continue reading ->
Three years after the launch of its COVID-19 Technology Access Pool (C-TAP) initiative, the World Health Organization (WHO) has secured its first COVID-19 vaccine license from a private pharmaceutical company, the UN health body announced on Tuesday. The agreement with Medigen Vaccine Biologics Corp., a private vaccine manufacturer based in Taiwan, is a welcome but underwhelming […] Continue reading ->
Fewer than 20 countries worldwide still report COVID-19 hospitalization and ICU data to the World Health Organization (WHO), leaving the UN health body blind to the impact and evolution of the virus in most of the world, agency leaders said Friday. The decline in data reporting is a major setback for the WHO’s efforts to […] Continue reading ->
With the fate and nature of the pandemic accord currently being negotiated by World Health Organization (WHO) member states still uncertain, global health experts are calling for “realistic” backup plans to protect the world against the next pandemic. “We need an ambitious but implementable pandemic accord – that is the Holy Grail,” Javier Guzman, Director […] Continue reading ->
Since the beginning of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, the popular assumption was that people displaying severe symptons were also the most contagious. But new data from a controversial Imperial College London study published on Tuesday found the two participants that were the biggest “superspreaders” of the virus both displayed only minor symptoms. “How symptomatic a person […] Continue reading ->
The Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) announced sublicensing agreements with seven manufacturers to produce and distribute generic versions of Japanese pharmaceutical company Shinogi’s COVID-19 antiviral treatment in 117 low- and middle-income countries. Ensitrelvir is an oral antiviral currently only approved in Japan under the country’s emergency regulatory approval system. The drug is being evaluated under a […] Continue reading ->
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