Biden to promise world 500 million COVID-19 vaccine doses

Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine image courtesy of Wikipedia

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.

Biden will announce the plan in the near future at an appearance with Pfizer CEO Dr. Albert Bourla, according to a report from The New York Times.

As COVID-19 cases in the U.S. continue to fall, Biden has faced growing pressure to provide vaccine doses to regions continuing to battle surges in infections.

When boarding Air Force One, Biden confirmed that his administration was making progress with its global vaccine strategy. While hinting at a forthcoming news announcement, he did not offer further information.

Biden has promised to provide 80 million vaccine doses by the end of June.

The U.S. will pay for the COVID-19 doses at cost, according to The New York…

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The top pharma stories of early 2021

Image courtesy of Nataliya Vaitkevich via Pexels.

COVID-19 vaccines dominated pharma industry news during the first half of this year.

It’s little wonder, too, since vaccines are the best hope to return the world to some kind of post-pandemic “normal.”

As with any new medical treatments — especially ones authorized amid an emergency — there have been questions about side effects. Drug Discovery & Development delved into what experts and scientific studies are saying. The overall conclusion is clear: While reactogenicity is a valid concern, the benefits of COVID-19 vaccines greatly outweigh the risks for the vast majority of patients.

Here are eight stories of our stories that delved into potential COVID-19 vaccine side effects:

Dizziness among common COVID-19 vaccine side effects Tinnitus reports grow amid COVID-19 vaccinations Moderna COVID-19 vaccine might cause facial swelling for p…
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Pfizer expands COVID-19 vaccine trial involving children under 12

Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) and its German partner BioNTech (NASDAQ: BNTX) will proceed with a COVID-19 vaccine trial involving as many as 4,500 children. The trial will significantly reduce the 30-mg dose that adults and adolescents receive. Investigators will administer a 10-µg dose to children aged 5 to 11 and give those aged six months to five years old a 3-µg dose.

The company anticipates data from 5- to 11-year-olds in September and plans on filing for emergency use authorization shortly after that.

The company anticipates that data for the 6-month to 2-year-old cohort will be available in October or November.

In related news, Pfizer and BioNTech must contend with concerns that their BNT162b2 could be linked to myocarditis in adolescents.

[Related: 50 of 2020’s best-selling pharmaceuticals]

A recently published preprint in the journal Pediatrics describes seven male adolescents who developed myocarditis after receiving the vaccine. All seven pa…

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BD surpasses 2 billion orders for COVID-19 injection devices

[Image from BD]BD (NYSE:BDX) announced today that orders for its needles and syringes hit 2 billion amid global COVID-19 vaccination efforts.

Franklin Lakes, N.J.-based BD’s latest milestone comes less than six months after the company surpassed 1 million orders for vaccine delivery devices in December 2020.

The order total encompasses commitments to governments all over the globe, including the U.S., Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, India, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Spain and the UK, among others.

Get the full story at our sister site, Drug Delivery Business News.

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FDA authorizes lower dose of REGEN-COV COVID-19 antibody cocktail

Regeneron (NSDQ:REGN) has announced that the FDA has signed off on a 1,200 mg subcutaneous or intravenous dose of its REGEN-COV antibody cocktail. The quantity is half of the initially authorized dose. The agency had previously authorized a 2,400 mg dose of the vaccine, including a combined dose of 1,200 mg of Casirivimab and 1,200 mg of Imdevimab.

The initial EUA for REGEN-COV did not include the option for a subcutaneous dose of the antibody cocktail. The option to make the product available via injection makes it easier for doctors or nurses to administer. The use of SARS-CoV-2 monoclonal antibodies has lagged behind vaccines, with only a fraction of eligible patients receiving such antibodies in the past year.

FDA came to its decision after reviewing data from a pivotal Phase 3 study that showed that the drug reduced the risk of hospitalization or death by 70%. The efficacy of the reduced dose is similar to the 2,400 mg dose.

REGEN-COV appears to be …

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AstraZeneca could enlist Catalent to produce COVID-19 vaccines

After stopping the production of its COVID-19 vaccine at an Emergent Biosolutions facility in Baltimore, AstraZeneca (LON:AZN) is in negotiations with Catalent (NYSE:CTLT) to shift production to one of its plants in nearby Harmans, Md.

FDA has yet to authorize the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, although it has won full approval in Australia and Brazil and has received emergency use authorization (EUA) in 168 other countries.

As a majority of U.S. citizens have already received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose, officials at AstraZeneca are reportedly mulling the option of pursuing full approval of its vaccine instead of EUA, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The U.S. government required Emergent Biosolutions to halt production of the AstraZeneca vaccine after a production error forced Emergent to discard 15 million COVID-19 vaccine doses. Emergent intended to produce AstraZeneca’s and Johnson & Johnson’s adenovirus-vectored vaccines in the same f…

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Almost one-quarter of Americans remain vaccine-hesitant

[Photo by Maksim Goncharenok from Pexels]

A study from Informa Pharma Intelligence and YouGov concluded that vaccine hesitancy remains a significant hurdle in the U.S. A separate study published in JAMA indicates vaccine hesitancy is falling. Specifically, the number of people who were suspicious about COVID-19 vaccines fell from 46% in October 2020 to 35% in March 2021.

Conversely, the Informa-YouGov survey from April 21 and 22 concluded that 23% of Americans were vaccine-hesitant. The study had 1,327 adult participants.

While approximately half of the U.S. public has received at least one vaccine dose, vaccinating the remainder of the eligible population could be a hurdle.

But the recent data from the Informa-YouGov survey indicate that achieving President Biden’s goal of providing at least one vaccine dose to 70% of the American adults by July 4 is at least feasible.

Another factor tha…

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CureVac’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate inches forward to Phase 2b/3 efficacy readout

CureVac (NSDQ:CVAC) has announced that its first-generation COVID-19 vaccine has passed its first interim analysis but has chosen not to share efficacy data until a statistically significant efficacy analysis is ready.

The Tübingen, Germany–headquartered company is developing two mRNA-based vaccines. The mRNA vaccines from Moderna (NSDQ:MRNA) and Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) are currently two of the most popular COVID-19 vaccines in the world.

The data and safety monitoring board also concluded that there were no safety concerns linked to the CVnCoV in the HERALD study.

The company’s second-generation vaccine is known as CV2CoV, which it is developing in collaboration with GSK.

 

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Sinopharm publishes COVID-19 vaccine trial data

An article recently published in JAMA concluded that two inactivated COVID-19 vaccines from Sinopharm (OTCMKTS: SHTDY) were 72.8% and 78.1% effective, respectively, based on interim Phase 3 study results.  

The lower figure refers to the protection from a COVID-19 vaccine based on two 5-µg doses based on the SARS-CoV-2 isolate WIV04 complete genome. The second vaccine in the study was based on two 4-µg vaccine doses developed with the HB02 strain of SARS-CoV-2. Some 13,459 received the WIV04-based vaccine, while 13,465 received the HBO2 version. 

A placebo group including 13,465 participants received aluminum hydroxide, a common adjuvant.

In all, the study involved 40,380 participants. Most participants in the study were relatively young men.

Sinopharm recruited study participants in the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Jordan and Bahrain. The study population consisted of adults at least 18 years of age who believed they had not contracted COVID-19 o…

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COVID-19 vaccine booster questions remain

Image from Nataliya Vaitkevich via Pexels

While the question of when the vaccinated public will require a COVID-19 booster remains unclear, some long-term care advocates are pushing for guidance to avoid a potential resurgence in infections in the fall and winter. 

Nursing home residents were among the first to receive COVID-19 vaccines. Providing boosters to the demographic is vital to prevent the spread of COVID-19 infections, which was a significant driver of overall mortality from the novel coronavirus at the beginning of the pandemic. “Hence, if and when the residents’ immunity wanes, we must be on high alert, lest we relive the horrors of the past year,” said Dr. Mike Wasserman, a member of California’s Vaccine Advisory Committee in an interview with ABC News. 

Complicating matters is the fact that many older adults have a diminished ability to produce antibodies, increas…

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Exelead makes first precursor batch of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine

Pharma industry contract manufacturer Exelead recently announced that it has delivered its first precursor batch of Prizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine, produced at its recently expanded facility in Indianapolis.

Exelead plans to add 50 jobs to help it meet COVID-19 vaccine demand.

“We are extremely proud to be part of the manufacture of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, knowing our work has the potential to help millions of people,” said Exelead CEO John Rigg said in a news release. “As a leader in complex drug manufacturing, Exelead is committed to leveraging our manufacturing capabilities and years of experience to help support the supply of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine and increase the number of doses available.”

Kevin Nepveux, VP of Pfizer Global Supply, added that contract manufacturer support is one way the pharmaceutical giant has ramped up manufacturing capabilities to produce more COVID-19 vaccine doses.

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FDA could decline new COVID-19 vaccine EUA requests

Healthcare workers have administered almost 288 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines in the U.S., which now has more than enough vaccine for the present demand. 

Against that backdrop, FDA has released updated emergency use authorization (EUA) guidelines for COVID-19 vaccines that state the agency could decline some future EUA requests. “For the remainder of the current pandemic, FDA may decline to review and process further EUA requests other than those for vaccines whose developers have engaged in an ongoing manner with the Agency,” the guidelines explain. 

In its most recent guidance, the FDA also stresses the need for EUA vaccine candidates to undergo rigorous product quality review, including scrutiny of manufacturing and clinical trials. 

Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) and its partner BioNTech (NSDQ:BNTX) have already begun filing a Biologics License Application for full FDA approval for their COVID-19 vaccine. Moderna (NSDQ:MRNA) is also pursuing full approval. …

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