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by Joshua Melvin with Juliette Michel in New York Agence France Presse Moderna said Friday it is suing rival vaccine makers Pfizer and BioNTech, alleging the partners infringed on its patents in developing their Covid-19 shot administered to hundreds of millions around the world. The lawsuits set up a high-stakes showdown between the leading manufacturers of Covid-19 shots that are a key tool in the fight against the disease. “Moderna believes that Pfizer and […]
BERLIN, Germany (AFP) – Germany’s BioNTech and US pharma giant Pfizer, which together developed a Covid-19 vaccine in record time, said Wednesday they are working on a shingles shot using the same mRNA technology. Moderna meanwhile announced it had dosed its first volunteer for a vaccine against Epstein–Barr virus (EBV), the cause of mononucleosis. The three companies are leveraging the same mRNA technology they used to develop highly successful Covid-19 vaccines towards other diseases, in […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Pfizer, BioNTech and Moderna are making combined profits of $65,000 every minute from their highly successful Covid-19 vaccines while the world’s poorest countries remain largely unvaccinated, according to a new analysis. The companies have sold the vast majority of their doses to rich countries, leaving low-income nations in the lurch, said the People’s Vaccine Alliance (PVA), a coalition campaigning for wider access to Covid vaccines, which based its calculations on […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Drugmakers Pfizer and BioNTech announced Tuesday they have formally submitted a request asking US officials for emergency authorization of their Covid-19 booster vaccine for people aged 18 and older. The move follows research published by the companies in late October indicating a third shot is 95.6 percent effective against symptomatic infection, based on clinical trials carried out on 10,000 people. The companies asked the US Food and Drug Administration to […]
FRANKFURT, Germany (AFP) — Germany’s BioNTech, which developed a coronavirus vaccine with US giant Pfizer in record time, said Monday it aimed to start trialling a malaria vaccine next year using the same breakthrough mRNA technology. If successful, the vaccine could be a crucial step in the fight against the mosquito-borne disease, which kills more than 400,000 people a year — mainly young children in Africa. “We will do whatever it takes to develop a […]
HONG KONG, China (AFP) — People who received BioNTech’s coronavirus vaccine had ten times the amount of antibodies than those given China’s Sinovac, a Hong Kong study has shown, adding to growing data on different jabs’ effectiveness. The University of Hong Kong (HKU) research, based on a study of 1,442 healthcare workers, was published in Lancet Microbe on Thursday. Researchers said antibodies are not the only measure of a vaccine’s success at fighting a […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Pfizer and BioNTech announced Thursday they would seek regulatory authorization for a third dose of their Covid-19 vaccine. It comes after initial data from an ongoing trial showed a third shot pushed antibody levels five to 10 times higher against the original coronavirus strain and the Beta variant, first found in South Africa, compared to the first two doses alone, according to a statement. “The companies expect to publish more […]
SINGAPORE, Singapore (AFP) — Singapore authorized the use of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid vaccine to teenagers aged 12 to 15, officials said on Tuesday, in a first for Asia. The city-state’s Health Sciences Authority extended the use of the vaccine — currently only approved for individuals aged 16 and above — after reviewing clinical data submitted by the manufacturer. Singaporean authorities “assessed that the Pfizer-BioNTech covid-19 vaccine demonstrated high safety and efficacy for this age group […]
FRANKFURT, Germany (AFP) — Covid jab maker BioNTech said Monday it would build a southeast Asia headquarters and manufacturing site in Singapore to produce hundreds of millions of mRNA-based vaccines per year. Construction of the site will start this year, and it could become operational by 2023, the German company said in a statement. “With this planned mRNA production facility, we will increase our overall network capacity and expand our ability to manufacture and deliver […]
FRANKFURT, Germany (AFP) — BioNTech said Thursday that it expected its Covid-19 vaccine, jointly developed with Pfizer, to be available to 12 to 15-year-olds in Europe from June. The German firm’s CEO Ugur Sahin told Der Spiegel weekly that it was “in the final stretches” of preparing its submission for European regulatory approval. The evaluation of the trial data “takes four to six weeks on average”, he added. Vaccinating children is seen as a crucial […]
BERLIN, Germany (AFP) — BioNTech co-founder Ugur Sahin on Wednesday voiced confidence that the vaccine that his company jointly developed with Pfizer works against the Indian variant of the coronavirus. “We are still testing the Indian variant, but the Indian variant has mutations that we have already tested for and which our vaccine works against, so I am confident,” said Sahin. © Agence France-Presse
BERLIN, Germany (AFP) — Pfizer/BioNTech’s coronavirus vaccine offers more protection than earlier thought with effectiveness in preventing symptomatic disease reaching 97 percent, according to real-world evidence published Thursday by the pharmaceutical companies. Using data from January 17 to March 6 from Israel’s national vaccination campaign, Pfizer/BioNTech found that prevention against asymptomatic disease also reached 94 percent. An earlier real-world study using data from between December 20, 2020 and February 1, 2021 had showed effectiveness at […]
