As COVID patent war rages on, pharma group seeks fairer future access
London, UK Reuters An alliance of companies has pledged to ensure equitable access to vaccines and treatments for pandemics, as the friction around intellectual property rights for COVID-19 interventions between the pharmaceutical industry and developing nations endures. At the heart of the plan is a commitment to set aside part of the production of vaccines […]
Short AstraZeneca shelf life complicates COVID vaccine rollout to world’s poorest
Brussels, Belgium/London, UK Reuters The relatively short shelf life of AstraZeneca Plc’s COVID-19 vaccine is complicating the rollout to the world’s poorest nations, according to officials and internal World Health Organization documents reviewed by Reuters. It is the latest headache to plague the COVAX vaccine-sharing project, co-led by the WHO and aimed at getting shots […]
EU has shipped tiny percentage of planned COVID-19 shot donations – document
Brussels, Belgium Reuters EU countries have so far donated just a tiny portion of excess COVID-19 vaccines to poor nations, mostly AstraZeneca shots, less than three per cent of the 160 million doses they plan to give away in total to help tame the global pandemic, an EU document shows. The European Union has committed […]
COVID fight could return ‘to square one’: experts sound vaccines alarm
London, UK Reuters India’s export ban on COVID-19 shots risks dragging the battle against the pandemic “back to square one” unless wealthy nations step in to plug a gaping hole in the COVAX global vaccine-sharing scheme, health specialists said on Thursday. COVAX, which is critical for poorer countries, relies on AstraZeneca shots made by the […]
Explainer: How worried should we be about blood clots linked to AstraZeneca and J&J vaccines?
Zurich, Switzerland Reuters US regulators have recommended pausing the use of Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine as they investigate rare blood clotting in six women, including one who died. J&J also said it was delaying the rollout of its vaccine in Europe. US officials said the temporary halt is expected only to last a few […]
EU health ministers fail to agree common guidance on AstraZeneca shot
Brussels, Belgium Reuters European Union health ministers failed on Wednesday to agree a common guidance on the use of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, despite calls for coordination across member states to combat public hesitancy over taking the shot. Ministers held an extraordinary virtual meeting just after the European Medicines Agency changed its guidance on the […]
Yemen gets first COVID-19 vaccines but is “at the back of the queue”
Aden, Yemen Reuters Yemen received its first COVID-19 vaccines on Wednesday, a week after the internationally recognised government declared a health emergency in areas under its control. The 360,000 doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccine arrived by plane at Aden, part of a consignment from the global COVAX vaccine-sharing scheme expected to total 1.9 million doses this […]
COVAX expects full vaccine supplies from India’s Serum in May, says UNICEF
New Delhi, India Reuters A World Health Organization-backed program to supply coronavirus vaccines to poorer countries expects that the Serum Institute of India will resume full deliveries of the AstraZeneca shot to it in May, UNICEF said on Saturday. “Deliveries of SII/AZ vaccine are expected to begin fully again by May, with catch-up deliveries to […]
AstraZeneca vaccine’s global rollout faces more complications
Reuters The rollout of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine, the shot much of the world is relying on to beat the pandemic, faced further complications on Thursday as India halted exports of the vaccine and Europe discussed its own export controls. India has put a temporary hold on all major exports of the Anglo-Swedish firm’s vaccine from […]
AstraZeneca’s US trial data a confidence booster for COVID-19 shot
London, UK/Taipei, Taiwan Reuters AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine performed better than expected in a major late-stage trial, paving the way for its potential emergency authorization in the United States and boosting confidence in the shot after setbacks in Europe. The drugmaker said on Monday that interim data from trials in Chile, Peru and the United States […]