In the unprecedented race to develop a COVID-19 vaccine, the World Health Organization says that there are no “cutting corners” in testing the safety and efficacy of a new vaccine candidate. Vaccine development has moved at an unprecedented pace. In six months, some 26 candidates are already undergoing human testing, while 139 more are in […] Continue reading ->
Environmentalists and scientists have called out the recent Indian Supreme Court decision directing the government to install “smog towers” in Delhi as an injudicious move that will lead to a waste of public money. The opposition escalated after the Court on Tuesday, ordered the government to begin installing the smog towers within the next week. […] Continue reading ->
European legislation on drugs for rare diseases is “far from perfect”, but it is not a ‘failure’ given the amount of private sector investment it has attracted in the past two decades, says Yann Le Cam, CEO of EURORDIS – Rare Diseases Europe, a non-profit alliance of some 930 rare disease patient organisations across 72 […] Continue reading ->
‘’Less than 1%” of infected individuals die from the coronavirus according to the World Health Organization, marking the first time the agency has reported an ‘infection fatality rate’ for the general population. The virus is easily spread and more deadly in older people, making it a threat. The remarks by WHO’s experts came just a […] Continue reading ->
Amidst the battle against a new infectious threat, the fight against tuberculosis, one of humankind’s oldest recorded infectious diseases, is also progressing. Pretomanid – only the second TB drug to hit the market in over two decades – received conditional marketing approval Monday from the European Commission as part of a new, three-drug treatment regimen […] Continue reading ->
Four months after South Africa implemented one of the strictest lockdowns in the world, it appears that neither lives nor livelihoods have been spared. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa was widely praised for taking decisive action when he introduced one of the fastest and strictest lockdowns in the world in late March. Within three weeks […] Continue reading ->
Big pharma has reaped billions in profit off the back of European orphan drug regulations that are supposed to incentivize R&D for rare diseases, according to an analysis of 120 orphan medicines registered in the EU over the past two decades. Instead of incentivizing R&D for rare maladies, the EU’s orphan drug legislation has turned […] Continue reading ->
First in a series of stories about how the coronavirus lockdowns and relaxations are playing out in different parts of Africa. Ibadan, Nigeria – While Lagos and Abuja capital city continue to be the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria accounting for nearly half of confirmed cases, Oyo State is also generating a buzz. […] Continue reading ->
Italy has become the first nation to require pharmaceutical companies to disclose secret data about any public subsidies it may have received for the development of a new drug, during negotiations over drug pricing and reimbursement with national regulatory authorities, according to a decree published Friday in the nation’s official gazette. The decree, following on […] Continue reading ->
In a landmark achievement, incidence of chronic hepatitis B has successfully dropped below 1% in children under five, reaching the 2020 goal set at the 2016 World Health Assembly, said World Health Organization Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanon Ghebreyesus on Monday. The target reduction in hepatitis B virus (HBV) incidence in children was met in 2019, […] Continue reading ->