Tag Archives: pharma

Dozens Of Nobel Laureates And Former World Leaders Urge US To Temporarily Waive COVID Vaccine Patents

Reuters reports: More than 60 former heads of state, including former leaders of Britain and France, and over 100 Nobel Prize winners called on U.S. President Joe Biden to back a waiver of intellectual property rules for COVID-19 vaccines. A waiver would boost vaccine manufacturing and speed up the response to the pandemic in poorer countries which otherwise might have …

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Pfizer Ramps Up Production Amid Pause On J&J Vax

MarketWatch reports: Pfizer Inc. Chief Executive Albert Bourla tweeted late Tuesday that the pharma company has “ramped up” production of its COVID-19 vaccine, and will be able to deliver 10% more doses to the U.S. by the end of May than a previously agreed total of 220 million doses, as well as supply “the full (300 million doses) agreed on …

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STUDY: Pfizer Vaccine Effective For At Least Six Months

CNN reports: The ongoing Phase 3 clinical trial of Pfizer/BioNTech’s coronavirus vaccine confirms its protection remains high for at least six months after the second dose, the companies said Thursday. Protection likely lasts even longer than that, vaccine experts say, but they say having data showing good protection six months after people were vaccinated is good news. The vaccine remains …

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AstraZeneca Issues New Data After Rebuke By Feds

The New York Times reports: AstraZeneca reiterated on Wednesday that its Covid-19 vaccine was very effective at preventing the disease, based on more recent data than was included when the company announced the interim results of its U.S. clinical trial on Monday. The company said in a news release that its vaccine was 76 percent effective at preventing Covid-19. That …

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Pharma Fires Trump’s Operation Warp Speed Leader Over “Substantiated” Sexual Harassment Allegations

CNBC reports: Moncef Slaoui, who was chief scientist for the U.S government’s Covid vaccine development effort Operation Warp Speed during the Trump administration, was fired as Galvani Bioelectronics chairman over “substantiated” sexual harassment allegations by a woman, it was announced Wednesday. Slaoui’s dismissal by the board of Galvani majority shareholder GlaxoSmithKline came after GSK in February was sent a letter …

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Pfizer Launches Trial Of Oral Anti-COVID Medication

Reuters reports: Pfizer Inc has started an early-stage U.S. trial of an oral COVID-19 antiviral therapy that could be prescribed to patients at the first sign of infection, the company said on Tuesday. The drugmaker said the antiviral candidate showed potent activity against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, in lab studies. Pfizer’s candidate, named PF-07321332, is a protease inhibitor …

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Feds Question Data In AstraZeneca Vaccine Trial

Reuters reports: The Data Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB), an independent committee overseeing the trial, has “expressed concern that AstraZeneca may have included outdated information from that trial, which may have provided an incomplete view of the efficacy data,” the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) said in a statement released after midnight in the United States. The …

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US Study: AstraZenaca Vax Found To Be 79% Effective

The New York Times reports: The coronavirus vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford provided strong protection against Covid-19 in a large clinical trial in the United States, completely preventing the worst outcomes from the disease while causing no serious side effects, according to results announced on Monday. The findings, announced in a news release from AstraZeneca, may …

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US Nearing 100 Million Vaccine Doses Administered

Reuters reports: The United States has administered 90,351,750 doses of COVID-19 vaccines as of Sunday morning and distributed 116,363,405 doses, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. The vaccine doses are for both Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines as of 9 a.m. ET (1400 GMT) on Sunday, the agency said.The agency said 58,873,710 people had received one or more doses …

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Insurers Hit Pharma Douche With Class Action Lawsuit

The New York Post reports: Pharma Bro Martin Shkreli was slapped with a class action lawsuit Thursday from health insurers who claim he engaged in a scheme to create a pharmaceutical monopoly that allowed him to raise the price of an HIV drug by more than 4,000 percent. In the Manhattan federal court suit, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of …

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RECORD: Nearly 5M Vax Doses Given This Weekend

Axios reports: Just over 2.4 million coronavirus vaccinations were reported to the CDC on Sunday, matching Saturday’s record-high for inoculations as seen in Bloomberg’s vaccine tracker. Why it matters: Vaccinations are ramping up again after widespread delays caused by historic winter storms. Over 75 million vaccine doses have been administered thus far, with 7.5% of the population fully vaccinated and …

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FDA Approves Use Of J&J’s Single-Shot COVID Vaccine

The New York Times reports: The Food and Drug Administration on Saturday authorized Johnson & Johnson’s single-shot Covid-19 vaccine for emergency use, beginning the rollout of millions of doses of a third effective vaccine that could reach Americans by early next week. The announcement arrived at a critical moment, as the steep decline in coronavirus cases seems to have plateaued …

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FDA Panel Approves Single-Shot J&J COVID Vaccine

NBC News reports: An independent advisory panel to the Food and Drug Administration voted Friday to recommend that the agency authorize Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine. Members of the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee, or VRBPAC, voted unanimously in favor of recommending authorization. The FDA is not required to go along with the committee’s recommendation, but is widely …

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Moderna Tests Booster Vax On South African Variant

The Washington Post reports: Moderna said Wednesday that it has manufactured a new version of its coronavirus vaccine that is tailored to quell infection by the variant first identified in South Africa. A small amount of vaccine has been sent to the National Institutes of Health for a trial to determine whether boosting humans with the modified vaccine will stimulate …

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FDA Confirms Efficacy Of J&J’s Single-Shot Vaccine

CNBC reports: The Food and Drug Administration’s staff endorsed Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine for emergency use, a critical step in bringing a third shot to the U.S. marketplace. The staff report released Wednesday is meant to brief the FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee, which will meet Friday to review J&J’s request for emergency use authorization. The …

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WH: Vaccines Will Be Updated To Address Variants

The Washington Post reports: Andy Slavitt, White House senior adviser on the coronavirus response, said vaccine-producing companies plan to update their shots to address variants of the virus. During a Washington Post live interview Thursday, he said the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines “work well for” the most prominent variant spreading throughout the United States, which is the one first identified …

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STUDY: Pfizer Vaccine Should Work Against Variants

Politico Europe reports: The BioNTech/Pfizer coronavirus vaccine should grant protection against both the South African and British variants, according to an article published in Nature Medicine Monday. The researchers tested the blood sera of participants who had been given the vaccine against virus samples that were genetically modified to resemble the variants, finding that the antibodies responded to these viruses. …

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J&J Seeks FDA Approval For Its Single-Shot Vaccine

The Associated Press reports: Johnson & Johnson asked U.S. regulators late Thursday to clear the world’s first single-dose COVID-19 vaccine, an easier-to-use option that could boost scarce supplies. J&J’s vaccine was safe and offered strong protection against moderate to severe COVID-19, according to preliminary results from a massive international study. It didn’t appear quite as strong as two-dose competitors made …

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COVID Vax Rate Accelerates As New Cases Decline

The Washington Post reports: The rate of coronavirus vaccinations in the United States is accelerating, and the number of people who have received at least one shot is now higher than the total number of reported U.S. infections — a hopeful milestone that comes amid a vaccine rollout at times marked by complexity and frustration. The vaccination uptick is coinciding …

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British Study Will Test Mixing Coronavirus Vaccines

The Washington Post reports: British scientists have launched a study to determine whether mixing coronavirus vaccine doses produces a sufficient response to protect people from infection. The current approach involves the use of two shots of the same vaccine over several weeks. In the trial, participants will receive one shot of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine followed by a second dose from …

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