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PARIS, France (AFP) — Dozens of companies, from biotech start-ups to Big Pharma, are racing to develop a safe and effective Covid-19 vaccine, both to meet urgent medical need and for the potential payday. Here’s an update on the quest for a magic bullet against the coronavirus that has already killed more than a million people worldwide. How many in the pipeline? The World Health Organization (WHO) has identified 42 “candidate vaccines” at the stage […]
by Nina LARSON Agence France-Presse GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — Data indicating that a vaccine being developed against Covid-19 is highly effective is the “best science news of the year”, a pharmaceutical industry association chief said, voicing hope that other vaccine candidates would show equally good results. “A vaccine that has 90 percent efficacy and is pretty safe, that is a historic breakthrough,” the head of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA), Thomas […]
BRUSSELS, Belgium (AFP) — The European Commission announced Wednesday it has reached a deal with a sixth pharmaceutical firm, this time BioNTech-Pfizer, to reserve a further 200 million doses of a potential coronavirus vaccine. “Our chances to develop and deploy a safe and effective vaccine have never been higher, both for Europeans here at home, or for the rest of the world,” European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said. “To defeat coronavirus anywhere, […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The head of the US Food and Drug Administration raised the possibility in an interview published Sunday that a future vaccine against the coronavirus might be given emergency approval before the end of trials designed to ensure its safety and effectiveness. A request for such extraordinary approval would have to come from the vaccine developer, Stephen Hahn told the Financial Times. “If they do that before the end of […]
PARIS, France (AFP) — French pharma giant Sanofi said Monday it will buy US group Principia Biopharma for $3.68 billion in a deal that will boost its research and development into autoimmune and allergic diseases. The deal will see Sanofi “acquire all of the outstanding shares of Principia for $100 per share in cash, which represents an aggregate equity value of approximately $3.68 billion”, Sanofi said in a statement. Sanofi had been cooperating with San […]
OTTAWA, Canada (AFP) — Canada announced Wednesday it has signed two agreements with American pharmaceutical firms Pfizer and Moderna for the delivery of COVID-19 vaccines in 2021. Millions of doses will be supplied, but the vaccines are still in development while negotiations continue with other potential suppliers, Procurement Minister Anita Anand told a news conference. They will also still need to obtain Health Canada regulatory approvals before being distributed to Canadians, she said. The agreement […]
ZURICH, Switzerland (AFP) — Swiss pharmaceuticals giant Roche said Thursday the US authorities had given it emergency clearance for a test identifying patients most at risk of a dangerous immune response to coronavirus infection. Some of those worst affected display a very severe inflammatory response to COVID-19 as the body tries to combat the infection but ends up also destroying healthy tissue and even organs such as the kidneys with life-threatening implications. Very ill patients […]
by Nina LARSON GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — Pharmaceutical company executives said Thursday that one or several COVID-19 vaccines could begin rolling out before 2021, but warned the challenges would be “daunting” as it was estimated that 15 billion doses would be needed to halt the pandemic. Well over 100 labs around the world are scrambling to come up with a vaccine against the novel coronavirus, including 10 that have made it to the clinical trial […]
by Kelly Macnamara with Issam Ahmed in Washington PARIS, France (AFP) — From medical workers struggling to care for the rising tide of COVID-19 patients to the billions of people told to stay home to slow the pandemic, everyone is waiting for one thing: a vaccine. There is no known treatment for the new coronavirus that emerged in China late last year and has since proliferated across the planet, infecting more than half a million […]
BERLIN, Germany (AFP) — Germany staked its claim Sunday to ongoing work into a vaccine against the coronavirus, after media reports claimed US President Donald Trump was trying to poach research from a German company. “The German government has a strong interest in producing vaccines in Germany and Europe,” a spokesperson for the economy ministry told media group Funke. The ministry also pointed out that the government had the power to scrutinize foreign takeovers of […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — China’s drug regulator said it has launched a nationwide inspection of vaccine production as authorities step up the response to a fraud case that has re-ignited public fears over the safety of the country’s medicines. The State Drug Administration (SDA) said in an announcement issued late Wednesday that it had dispatched inspection teams “to thoroughly investigate the whole process and entire chain of vaccine production of all vaccine producers”. The […]
NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — Pfizer has reversed price increases on some drugs following White House pressure and the US drugmaker on Wednesday pledged to decide soon whether to sell its consumer drugs business. A day after President Donald Trump threatened action on drug prices, and said on Twitter drug companies should be “ashamed” for boosting costs, the pharmaceutical giant said it would reverse price increases that took effect July 1. In a […]
