COVID-19 vaccines
GSK, Sanofi say COVID-19 shot won’t be ready until late 2021
Drugmakers GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi said Friday that their potential COVID-19 vaccine won’t be ready until late next year because they need to improve the shot’s effectiveness in older people.
ADB launches $9 billion vaccine initiative for Asia Pacific
Asian Development Bank (ADB) has launched a $9 billion Asia Pacific Vaccine Access Facility (APVAX) vaccine initiative offering rapid and equitable support to its developing members as they procure and deliver effective and safe coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccines.
More than 14.3 million positive cases have been identified in Asia and the Pacific, causing more than 200,000 deaths, according to a release from the ADB.
As the pandemic persists, economic growth in developing Asia is projected to contract by 0.4% in 2020—the first regional gross domestic product contraction since the early 1960s.
Promoting safe, equitable, and effective access to vaccines is a top priority for ADB’s COVID-19 response efforts.
Vaccination programs can break the chain of virus transmission, save lives, and mitigate the negative economic impacts of the pandemic by restoring confidence in people’s ability to work, travel, and socialize safely.
The APVAX provides a comprehensive framework and resource envelope for supporting developing Asia’s vaccine access, using two complementary components.
The Rapid Response Component will provide timely support for critical vaccine diagnostics, procurement of vaccines, and transporting vaccines from the place of purchase to ADB’s developing members.
The Project Investment Component will support investments in systems for successful distribution, delivery, and administration of vaccines along with associated investments in building capacity, community outreach, and surveillance.
This may include such areas as cold-chain storage and transportation, vehicles, distribution infrastructure, processing facilities, and other physical investments.
The component may also be used to develop or expand vaccine manufacturing capacity in developing members.
Oxford vaccine is safe, but questions remain over efficacy
Full interim analysis of the safety and efficacy of the Oxford COVID-19 vaccine – developed in partnership with AstraZeneca – has been published in the Lancet. This paper represents the most comprehensive set of results from any of the phase 3 trials of COVID-19 vaccines to date.
According to an article by Dr Paul Hunter, Professor of Medicine at the University of East Anglia in the UK, on the website of GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance, these are still only interim results, meaning they show only how the ongoing phase 3 trial has progressed so far. The final results may differ. But what this analysis reveals is how the Oxford team calculated its vaccine’s efficacy, which it announced in late November.
This interim analysis included 11,636 people, of whom 7,548 were in the UK and 4,088 in Brazil, Dr Hunter writes. All participants received two injections, but as has been widely reported, one of the UK groups received a half dose rather than a full dose for the initial injection. This has made analysing the effects of this vaccine more complicated than it probably will be for others in the late stages of testing.
Importantly, the evidence that the vaccine is safe is convincing, according to Dr Hunter. There were 175 severe adverse events reported in the trials, and these were actually more common in the control group (which received either saline or a meningococcal vaccine) than with those receiving the COVID-19 vaccine.
Three of these events were judged to be possibly related to either the experimental or control vaccine. They included a case of transverse myelitis, a rare but serious spinal inflammatory disorder, in someone in the vaccine group, a case of haemolytic anaemia in someone in the control group, and a further person who developed a fever of over 40°C. As yet we don’t know whether this person received the COVID-19 vaccine or a control.
Across the study, ten patients became sufficiently ill with COVID-19 to require hospitalisation, but all were in the control arm.
China prepares large-scale rollout of COVID-19 vaccines
Provincial governments across China are placing orders for experimental, domestically made coronavirus vaccines, though health officials have yet to say how well they work or how they may reach the country’s 1.4 billion people.
Covid-19 vaccines: Bangladesh has ‘limited choices’
As three Covid-19 vaccines look ready to be rolled out soon, now one question is crossing the public mind where actually Bangladesh is in the line to have one.
UNICEF working with over 350 partners to deliver COVID-19 vaccines
The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) is working with more than 350 partners, including major airlines, shipping lines and logistics associations from around the world, to deliver COVID-19 vaccines to over 92 countries, as soon as doses become available, the agency said on Monday.
UNICEF plans to deliver around 2bn doses of COVID-19 vaccines
UNICEF is working with major global airlines and freight providers to step up efforts to deliver close to 2 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines in 2021 to over 92 countries around the world as soon as vaccines become available.
184 countries, economies join COVAX: WHO chief
A total of 184 countries and economies have now joined COVAX, an international initiative co-led by the World Health Organization (WHO) and partners to ensure effective and equitable global access to COVID-19 vaccines, reports Xinhua
Potential COVID-19 vaccines unaffected by mutation: Australian study
Research by Australia's national science agency has found that potential vaccines for COVID-19 would not be affected by how the virus has mutated.
Invest more in universal health coverage: UN Chief
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday called on governments to invest more in universal health coverage, reports Xinhua.