COVID-19 vaccine Archives - Page 18 of 38

Australia COVID-19 vaccine supply limited until August

Australia image from Pixabay.

As the U.S. sees demand plateauing for COVID-19 vaccines, Australia is facing a shortage of both vaccine supplies and healthcare workers.

Australian health officials project that the nation’s vaccination program will face delays from June to July. The slowdown is partly a result of limited shipments of the Pfizer vaccine. Australia expects to receive 1.7 million doses of the vaccine this month and another 2.8 million in July.

Australian officials are also aiming to enlist a greater number of general practitioners to help dispense vaccines later in the summer when supplies are likely to increase.

Like several other countries, Australia has also limited the use of the AstraZeneca (LON:AZN) vaccine over the risk of rare blood clots. Health officials there recently recommended the AstraZeneca vaccine only for adults 60 and older.

Australia’s Chief Medical Office…

Moderna to expand its Massachusetts manufacturing capabilities

Cambridge, Mass.–headquartered Moderna (NSDQ:MRNA) will hire at least 155 new manufacturing employees for manufacturing jobs at its plant in Norwood, Mass.

A $2.33 million tax incentive from the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center helped bankroll the expansion. The investment will enable the company to double the size of its manufacturing site in Norwood, Mass., which became operational in 2018.

With limited manufacturing capability, Moderna has had to rely on partners with contract manufacturers such as Lonza(SWX:LONN), Catalent (NYSE: CTLT), Baxter BioPharma Solutions (NYSE: BAX), Recipharm and Laboratorios Farmacéuticos Rovi (BME:ROVI).

Get the full story from our sister site, Pharmaceutical Processing World.

Moderna to expand its Massachusetts manufacturing capabilities

Cambridge, Mass.–headquartered Moderna (NSDQ:MRNA) will hire at least 155 new manufacturing employees for manufacturing jobs at its plant in Norwood, Mass.

A $2.33 million tax incentive from the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center helped bankroll the expansion. The investment will enable the company to double the size of its manufacturing site in Norwood, Mass., which became operational in 2018.

With limited manufacturing capability, Moderna has had to rely on partners with contract manufacturers such as Lonza (SWX:LONN), Catalent (NYSE: CTLT), Baxter BioPharma Solutions (NYSE: BAX), Recipharm and Laboratorios Farmacéuticos Rovi (BME:ROVI).

COVID-19 vaccine sales are fueling more growth. The company anticipates that it will generate $19.2 billion in revenue this year. That level of revenue would likely catapult the company into the top 20 pharmaceutical companies. For context, the top two pharma companies had approximately $50 billion in revenue in 2020.<…

Assessing pharma headwinds and tailwinds in mid-2021

Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Now that we have passed the year’s midway mark, pharma continues to be in a unique position.

While COVID-19 gave the industry an opportunity for a reputational reset in 2020, the pandemic is now a net positive for the industry, according to the recent Moody’s report, “Solid demand, lift from COVID-19 products continue to drive positive outlook.”

While demand for COVID-19 vaccines has ebbed recently in the U.S., Moody’s projects strong vaccine sales overall for the remainder of 2021. Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) upped their guidance for vaccine sales to $26 billion in their first-quarter earnings report. “Their approach to guidance for revenue is based on contracts that have been signed,” said Michael Levesque, lead author of the report. Thus, any future contracts that Pfizer signs after that guidance update will further expand their guidance …

mRNA vaccines do not negatively affect sperm county, study finds

One of the many urban legends related to COVID-19 vaccines is that they cause infertility. Researchers at the University of Miami set out to disprove that claim with a recent single-center prospective study. Unsurprisingly, the study that indicated the mRNA vaccines have no negative impact on male fertility. In fact, the researchers found that after the second vaccine dose, participants exhibited a significant increase in median sperm concentration and sperm motility.

In the study published in JAMA, the researchers stopped short of claiming that mRNA COVID-19 vaccines could boost fertility in men. “While these results showed statistically significant increases in all sperm parameters, the magnitude of change is within normal individual variation,” the study authors concluded.

The study only evaluated the BNT162b2 and mRNA-1273 vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, respectively.

The study tracked participants approximately 70 days after administering…

CureVac marches on after announced disappointing study results

After CureVac (NSDQ:CVAC) revealed that its first-generation vaccine candidate has an interim efficacy of 47% in a pivotal trial, its stock lost about half its value. The company, however, is undeterred.

Speaking in a call with investors and analysts, CureVac CEO Franz-Werner Haas said the company would continue to seek the authorization of its CVnCoV vaccine and continue developing its next-generation CV2CoV vaccine.

One difference between the vaccine from CureVac and those from Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech lies in the dose of mRNA. The CureVac vaccine contains 12 µg of mRNA per dose. The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine uses 30 µg per shot, while the Moderna vaccine contains 100 µg.

Haas, however, stressed the role of virus variants in the 47% interim efficacy figure. The Phase 2b/3 study “provides important insights into a dramatically transformed variant environment, suggesting that we are virtually fighting a different virus — a different pandemic” than six m…

U.S. buys 200 million more Moderna vaccine doses for potential boosters and use in children

Health experts remain divided over the need for COVID-19 vaccine boosters in the coming months, but the U.S. government is preparing for that possibility by purchasing 200 million additional doses of the COVID-19 vaccine from Moderna (NSDQ:MRNA).

The purchase of additional doses will also enable the U.S. government to inoculate children aged 12 to 17 in coming months, assuming FDA authorizes that use. Two doses of the vaccine were 100% effective in that age group, according to a recent Phase 2/3 trial.

In May, FDA amended its EUA for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to include adolescents aged 12 to 15.

The U.S. has committed to buying 500 million doses of Moderna’s vaccine to date. The company expects to deliver 110 million doses in the fourth quarter of 2021 and another 90 million in the first quarter of 2022.

To date, Moderna has provided 217 million doses to the U.S.

The NIH has launched a clinical trial involving fully vaccinated participan…

CureVac’s interim vaccine efficacy is 47% in Phase 2b/3 study

Germany-based CureVac (NSDQ:CVAC) announced that its mRNA vaccine was 47% effective against COVID-19 in a second interim analysis of a pivotal study involving approximately 40,000 participants in 10 countries.

The rise of COVID-19 variants played a role in the disappointing results. At least 13 COVID-19 variants were present in the study population who contracted the novel coronavirus. Some 57% of cases involved variants of concern.

FDA generally requires that a vaccine be at least 50% effective in a placebo-controlled trial to win emergency use authorization.

CureVac’s stock dropped 3.47% to $94.79 per share after the company announced the news.

The company anticipates that a final analysis will be ready in a matter of weeks. Based on available data, the vaccine appears to have a favorable safety profile.

CureVac is partnering with GSK (NYSE:GSK) to develop a next-gen COVID-19 vaccine. That vaccine could potentially protect against multipl…

Moderna vaccine highly effective two weeks after first dose

A study published in JAMA involving healthcare workers found that the first dose of Moderna’s (NSDQ:MRNA) COVID-19 vaccine was highly effective at reducing the risk of COVID-19 infections.

In the study, participants received two doses of the vaccine at the recommended 28-day interval. Clinical effectiveness reached 95% for days 15 through 42 of the study. But constraining the window to days 15 to 28 resulted in similar results.

The findings suggest that the vaccine can rapidly reduce the incidence of vaccine-sensitive SARS-CoV-2 infection in healthcare workers.

Even eight days after administration of the first dose, the vaccine yielded greater than 70% efficacy.

The study authors concluded that their findings were in line with aggregated data for the Pfizer-BioNTech BNT162b2 and Moderna’s mRNA-1273 vaccines.

The 42-day study began on Dec. 22, 2020. It involved 4,028 participants.

A number of healthcare workers have made headlines rec…

Recent study finds Pfizer vaccine effective against Delta variant

The BNT162b2 COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) and its partner BioNTech (NSDQ:BNTX) leads to a strong neutralizing antibody response to the B.1.617 variant, according to a recent study published in Nature.

The study focused on the B.1.617.2 subtype of the virus. Two others exist, known as B.1.617.1 and B.1.617.3.

The study did acknowledge that the antibody response to the B.1.617 was less robust than it was for the USA-WA1/2020 strain.

The study concluded that mass immunization with the BNT162b2 vaccine should be a central strategy to end the pandemic.

Researchers first identified the B.1.617 variant in India. The so-called Delta variant now accounts for approximately 6% of COVID-19 infections in the U.S. It is also the dominant variant in the U.K. Various subtypes of B.1.617 exist.

The predominance of B.1.617 in the U.K. underscores its potential to outcompete against B.1.1.7, the so-called “U.K. strain” that became dominant in …

COVID-19 treatments will continue to lift pharma sector, according to Moody’s

Photo by Anna Shvets from Pexels

The pandemic has eased throughout much of the world. But demand for COVID-19 vaccines and treatments continues to be brisk, according to ratings agency Moody’s. In general, the pandemic will contribute to the pharmaceutical industry’s projected EBITDA growth rate of 4% to 6% over the coming 12 to 18 months, the firm concluded.

While a significant number of vaccines and antivirals are already in use, more will likely win regulatory authorization in the coming months. But the volume of future COVID-19 therapy sales will hinge upon “how the pandemic evolves,” the Moody’s report acknowledged.

Other factors driving growth include growing healthcare use as countries such as the U.S. continue to lift COVID-19 restrictions.

Oncology, one of the most rapidly growing pharma areas, is likely to continue its growth trajectory. Moody’s expects immuno-onco…

Biden to promise world 500 million COVID-19 vaccine doses

President Joe Biden [Image courtesy of the White House]President Joe Biden has struck a deal with Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) and BioNTech (NSDQ:BNTX) to provide 500 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to roughly 100 countries over two years.

The two companies today confirmed the news, saying that the U.S. government will purchase at a not-for-profit price 200 million doses in 2021 and 300 million in early 2022. Doses will go to 100 low- and lower-middle-income countries including those in the African Union via the COVAX Facility.

Get the full story on our sister site Pharmaceutical Processing World.