COVID-19 vaccines Archives - Page 22 of 24

COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy reducing, but challenges remain

Image courtesy of Pexels

The likely timeline for vaccinating a large share of the U.S. public has tightened recently. On Tuesday, President Biden promised enough COVID-19 vaccine would be available for all Americans by the end of May.

But while increases in vaccine production can address the current vaccine shortage, vaccine hesitancy will likely curb vaccination efforts in the coming months, according to Philipp Rosenbaum, a senior healthcare analyst at GlobalData. “With increases in vaccine production from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna, a newly authorized vaccine from Johnson and Johnson, and a manufacturing partnership between J&J and Merck & Co., confidence in reaching the goal is high.”

Indeed, the proportion of the public intending to receive the vaccine has increased from 60% to 69%, according to data from the Pew Research Center.

But many Americans don’t want the vaccine. Almost…

RCSB Protein Data Bank now has more than 1,000 SARS-CoV-2 proteins

Acknowledgement: Illustration by David S. Goodsell, RCSB Protein Data Bank; doi: 10.2210/rcsb_pdb/goodsell-gallery-026

The RCSB Protein Data Bank has announced that more than 1,000 SARS-CoV-2 proteins are available at no cost.

Headquartered at Rutgers University–New Brunswick, the RCSB Protein Data Bank released its first SARS-CoV-2 structure — the coronavirus main protease (PDB 6lu7) — on Feb. 5, 2020.

The database has helped drive the development of effective COVID-19 vaccines. It continues to shed light on emerging variants of the virus, according to Stephen K. Burley, director of the RCSB Protein Data Bank. “The impact of structural biologists on research related to COVID-19 is a testament to the power of the experimental tools they use and their commitment to making data open access for the public good,” Burley said in a statement.

The database also offers proteins related to other viral…

Ivermectin not supported for mild COVID-19, study says

Ivermectin image courtesy of Wikipedia.

The antiparasitic drug ivermectin does not appear to be an efficacious COVID-19 treatment for mild COVID-19 cases, based on a randomized study recently published in JAMA.

Ivermectin — which is widely used in veterinary medicine to get rid of worms and other parasites— emerged as a potential COVID-19 treatment, owing to its ability to inhibit replication of the SARS-CoV-2 drugin in vitro and animal studies.

Similar research elevated hydroxychloroquine as a potential COVID-19 therapeutic agent, but the drug also has disappointed in human studies. The World Health Organization now cautions against its use as a COVID-19 treatment.

The ivermectin recipients in the Colombian study had a slightly faster resolution of symptoms than the placebo arm. The median time to resolution was 10 days in the ivermectin group versus 12 for placebo recipients. The number of …

How COVID-19 sidelined top vaccine manufacturers

Pfizer, with its partner BioNTech, and Moderna were the first to win emergency use authorization from FDA for COVID-19 vaccines. Johnson & Johnson recently got permission to distribute its vaccine.

But other Big Pharma companies have struggled to get vaccines to the finish line, including GlaxoSmithKline, Merck and Sanofi — among the largest vaccine manufacturers in the world.

While the pandemic offers pharmaceutical companies a unique opportunity to curry favor with the public and politicians, the current dearth of vaccines is partly a result of Big Pharma companies being “missing in action,” according to Zain Rizvi, a pharma-focused researcher at Public Citizen researcher, quoted in Financial Times.

COVID-19 vaccines could be a cash cow for Pfizer and Moderna. The former expects to rake in $15 billion worth of vaccines this year, while Moderna has forecasted $18.4 billion in sales.

Smaller va…

Report: Biden to announce partnership for Merck to make J&J’s COVID-19 vaccine

President Joe Biden is reportedly set to announce a partnership in which Merck (NYSE:MRK) will make Johnson & Johnson’s (NYSE:JNJ) recently approved COVID-19 vaccine.

The Washington Post reported that the agreement between the two competitors will boost the supply of the single-dose vaccine from J&J’s Janssen subsidiary, which received FDA emergency use authorization last week.

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

Report: Biden to announce partnership for Merck to make J&J’s COVID-19 vaccine

President Joe Biden is reportedly set to announce a partnership in which Merck (NYSE:MRK) will make Johnson & Johnson’s (NYSE:JNJ) recently approved COVID-19 vaccine.

The Washington Post reported that the agreement between the two competitors will boost the supply of the single-dose vaccine from J&J’s Janssen subsidiary, which received FDA emergency use authorization last week.

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

Moscow ramping up COVID-19 vaccination

Photo by Elly Fairytale from Pexels

More than half a million people in Moscow have received the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine or about 4% of its population. Now, Russia is aiming to both ramp up domestic vaccinations and exports of its Sputnik V vaccine.

Moscow has been one of the few cities that has had a surplus of COVID-19 vaccine.

Now, some 12,000 to 20,000 residents sign up daily for the vaccines, according to the Department of Information Technologies of Moscow.

The Russian capital has a population of 12.7 million.

The country’s two-dose Sputnik V vaccine has an efficacy of 91.6%, according to interim trial results.

Moscow is administering the vaccines with a network of 100 clinics and 20 public places with mobile vaccinators.

A growing number of categories of Moscow residents are eligible for the vaccine, which includes people over the age of 60, retirement-ho…

FDA authorizes J&J’s single-dose COVID-19 vaccine

Americans will start receiving Johnson & Johnson‘s COVID-19 vaccine within the next 24 to 48 hours, J&J CEO Alex Gorsky told NBC’s Today this morning.

FDA issued an EUA for J&J’s Ad26.COV2-S vaccine on Feb. 27, a day after an advisory panel unanimously recommended that the agency authorize the vaccine for adults 18 and over. J&J’s vaccine is the third COVID-19 vaccine to receive authorization in the U.S. so far.

Get the full story from our sister publication, Drug Discovery & Development.

Is J&J’s COVID-19 vaccine linked to ringing in the ears?

In Johnson & Johnson’s (NYSE:JNJ) Phase 3 trial for the Ad26.COV2.S COVID-19 vaccine, six vaccine recipients developed tinnitus or ringing in the ears.

In five of those individuals, tinnitus had either resolved or was resolving. The condition was unresolved in the other trial volunteer.

No placebo recipients developed the condition.

Get the full story from our sister site, Drug Discovery & Development.

Could a third vaccine shot better protect against COVID-19 variants?

[Photo by Daniel Schludi on Unsplash]

Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna are testing whether a third dose of their COVID-19 vaccines could better protect against new virus variants.

Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) and BioNTech (NSDQ:BNTX) announced today that participants from their Phase 1 study will be offered the opportunity to receive a 30 µg booster of the current vaccine 6 to 12 months after receiving their initial two doses. The two companies are also in discussions with regulatory authorities including the U.S. FDA and European Medicines Agency about a registration-enabled clinical study of a vaccine with a modified mRNA sequence geared toward the South African variant.

“While we have not seen any evidence that the circulating variants result in a loss of protection provided by our vaccine, we are taking multiple steps to act decisively and be ready in case a strain becomes resistant to the protection afforded by t…

5 takeaways from the latest White House COVID-19 response team briefing

Today, the White House COVID-19 response team held a press briefing to discuss a range of themes. Andy Slavitt, Senior White House advisor, share information on the current pace of vaccination. CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky shared information on the current spread of COVID-19 and its impact on U.S. life expectancy. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, was on hand to discuss the potential vaccination of children. Here are five highlights from the briefing:

1. Freezing weather has curbed COVID-19 vaccine distribution

All 50 states have been affected by COVID-19 vaccine shortages stemming from severe weather afflicting much of the U.S. “We have a backlog of about 6 million doses,” said Andy Slavitt, Senior White House advisor, in a press briefing.

U.S. vaccine distribution partners FedEx, UPS and McKesson have struggled to package and ship vaccine kits and related supplies. Many of the firm’s workers have struggled with road cl…

Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine stable at standard freezer temps

Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine image courtesy of Wikipedia

Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) and BioNTech (NSDQ:BNTX) have submitted data to FDA indicating that their vaccine is stable at –25° C to –15°C. Currently, the vaccine can be stored in an ultra-cold freezer between –80⁰ C and –60⁰ C, according to current CDC guidelines.

Updating the companies’ emergency use authorization prescribing information would be simplify logistics. It would enable vaccine vials to be stored in the warmer temperature range for up to two weeks, reducing the need for ultracold freezers, which are in short supply.

“The data submitted may facilitate the handling of our vaccine in pharmacies and provide vaccination centers an even greater flexibility,” said BioNTech CEO Ugur Sahin in a statement. “We will continue to leverage our expertise to develop potential new formulations that could make our vaccine even easier to transport and use.”

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