The continuing politicization of COVID-19 vaccines is undermining medical science and the international response to the pandemic. “Vaccine nationalism is very troubling,” Jeremy Levin, chair of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization’s (BIO) executive committee, told BioWorld.
A U.S. Senate committee met March 18 to review the federal government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, during which former FDA commissioner David Kessler said the Trump administration’s vaccine contracts were expensive, but effective in ensuring a robust supply. Nonetheless, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said one vaccine manufacturer had recently voiced an interest in charging more on a per-dose basis for its vaccine, and suggested that the cost of booster shots should perhaps be examined anew by the Biden administration.
LONDON – A further U.K. real-world study of COVID-19 vaccines has found a single dose dramatically reduces the chances of the most elderly and frail being admitted to the hospital as a result of serious infection.
Pfizer Inc. and Biontech SE submitted new data to the FDA showing its COVID-19 vaccine’s stability can be maintained at temperatures often found in pharmaceutical freezers and refrigerators: -13°F to 5°F (-25°C to -15°C).
In the shadow of the COVID-19-related deaths of more than half a million Americans and far more deaths across the world, the Biden administration is reportedly rethinking its position on a proposal before the World Trade Organization to waive intellectual property protection for SARS-CoV-2 vaccines.
LONDON – The first population-level real-world data on COVID-19 vaccines indicate they are having a dramatic impact on severe disease, with a study in Scotland showing a fall of 85% in hospital admissions for people who received the Pfizer Inc./Biontech SE product, and a drop of 94% for those who had Astrazeneca plc’s vaccine, four weeks after receiving the first dose.
Pfizer Inc. and Biontech SE submitted new data to the FDA showing its COVID-19 vaccine’s stability can be maintained at temperatures often found in pharmaceutical freezers and refrigerators: -13°F to 5°F (-25°C to -15°C). That’s cold but not nearly as cold as the mRNA-based vaccine’s emergency use authorization label calls for, which is storage in an ultra-cold freezer at temps of between -112 to -76 degrees Fahrenheit (-80 and -60 degrees Celsius).
LONDON – The EU is taking concerted action to detect new variants of SARS-CoV-2, investing €225 million (US$270 million) to increase viral genome sequencing to 5% of positive cases across Europe, and to carry out research on their evolution and transmissibility.
LONDON – The EMA has requested all COVID-19 vaccine developers to investigate if their products offer protection against new variants of SARS-CoV-2 and to submit the relevant data.
LONDON – The U.K has started the world’s first trial alternating an adenoviral vectored COVID-19 vaccine with one that delivers the virus spike protein instructions encoded in messenger RNA. The heterologous prime boost trial will recruit 820 participants into an eight-arm study comparing different combinations of the Astrazeneca plc/Oxford University and Pfizer Inc./Biontech SE vaccines, administered in a different order and at different intervals.
