The Philippines is expecting to receive its first batch of China’s Sinovac Biotech COVID-19 vaccine next month — but one leading Filipino senator is questioning the government’s preference for the candidate as new data indicates a lower efficacy rate than western competitors. Earlier this week, developer Sinovac Biotech reported an efficacy rate of only 50.38% […] Continue reading ->
Deliveries of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine to all European Union (EU) states will be reduced for an undisclosed period starting from next week, Norway’s National Institute of Public Health has said. The sudden change to delivery schedules, Pfizer announced on Friday, is due to a reorganization of the company’s production capacity. It did not say how […] Continue reading ->
DELHI, INDIA – In the last week of December 2020, Chanda Devi heard a truck roll into her neighborhood in North Bhopal, Central India. Residents were called outside by a voice, booming through loudspeakers. They were eligible to collect Rs 750 (about US$10) to receive a “corona vaccine”. The people said that they were recruiters, […] Continue reading ->
IBADAN, NIGERIA – So far the continent has been obliged to look on as developed countries vaccinate millions of their citizens against SARS-CoV-2, but now African countries may also soon gain access to COVID-19 vaccines. In a striking show of political unity, the African Union (AU) has secured provisional commitments to procure some 270 million […] Continue reading ->
Johnson & Johnson is set to release its Phase 3 COVID-19 clinical trial results in two weeks and immediately file for emergency authorization from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) – an announcement that is likely a harbinger of positive results.  This news on the development of the first one-shot COVID-19 vaccine, accompanied by […] Continue reading ->
The World Health Organization (WHO) has “outsourced” its role in vaccine access and sidelined member states by leaving the running of the COVAX vaccine procurement facility to GAVI, The Vaccine Alliance and CEPI (Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Initiative), Third World Network’s Sangeeta Shashikant told a civil society forum on Tuesday. “Disparity in access is the […] Continue reading ->
Switzerland’s drug regulatory agency, Swissmedic, has authorized Moderna’s mRNA COVID-19 vaccine for use – in a move that should helop accelerate its rollout of vaccines against the pandemic, The Swiss Federal Government has secured 7.5 million doses of the Moderna vaccine, with deliveries expected to begin next week from the Visp-based plant where most of […] Continue reading ->
Governments have spent at least €93 billion on COVID-19 vaccines and therapeutics globally since the beginning of the pandemic, a new study has found. Research published on Monday by the kENUP Foundation, a European non-profit supporting research-based innovation in health industries, found that in 11 months, the public sector invested heavily in the development of […] Continue reading ->