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The Russian branch of pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca said it would use part of Russia’s homemade Sputnik V vaccine in more clinical trials, an important sign of recognition for a coup that has been viewed with skepticism by the West.
Russia was one of the first countries to announce the development of a coronavirus vaccine, which it named Sputnik V in honor of the Soviet-era satellite.
While the jab has yet to complete its third and final phase of tests involving some 40,000 volunteers, its developers have said that interim test results showed 95% effectiveness.
“Today we announce a program of clinical trials to evaluate the safety and immunogenicity of a combination of AZD1222, developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford, and Sputnik V, developed by the Russian research institute Gamaleya,” AstraZeneca said in a statement published in their website in English. and Russian.
The drug company said adults 18 and older will sign up for the trials, which are expected to begin before the end of the year.
While the Sputnik V jab uses human adenovirus vectors, AZD1222 is based on chimpanzee adenovirus. Both are given in two doses.
Russia’s Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), which was involved in the development of Sputnik V, said in its own statement that on 23 November it offered AstraZeneca to “use one of the two Sputnik V vaccine vectors in additional clinical trials of its own. . vaccine “.
Russia announced the registration of Sputnik V in August, after having completed the second phase of testing with fewer than 100 volunteers, raising concerns among domestic and foreign scientists.
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Analysts saw the accelerated registration and early launch of mass vaccination as an effort by Russia to bolster its geopolitical influence.
Several Russian allies, including India, Venezuela and Belarus, have said they would participate in clinical trials for the jab, while Kremlin friendly governments have reserved more than 1 billion doses of Sputnik V.
Ignoring Britain’s accusations of hackers linked to Russia targeting vaccine research, Moscow has said it is open to cooperation with Western countries.
The vaccine’s developers said it will be available in international markets for less than € 8.40 per dose and that it can be stored between 2 and 8 ° C rather than the temperatures well below freezing required for some other vaccines. .
In its statement today, AstraZeneca said that “combinations of different Covid-19 vaccines can be an important step in generating broader protection through a stronger immune response and better accessibility.”
The British-Swedish pharmaceutical company added that the cooperation with the Gamaleya Research Institute is “important to explore the potential of vaccine combinations that unlock synergies in protection and accessibility through a portfolio approach.”
The pharmaceutical giant had previously said that its vaccine had an average effectiveness of 70%.
RDIF chief Kirill Dmitriyev said on Friday that the collaboration will be a “unique example of cooperation between scientists from different countries in the joint fight against coronavirus.”
While Russia’s second wave has continued to rise in recent weeks, the country has refrained from re-imposing a strict nationwide lockdown as it did in the spring and has pinned its hopes on mass vaccination.
Last week, Russia launched a large-scale public vaccination campaign, initially offering Sputnik V to people from high-risk groups, including medical workers and teachers.
Today it reported 613 deaths from viruses in the last 24 hours, surpassing the 600 mark for the first time since the start of the pandemic.
Total deaths stood at 45,893, while infections rose to 2,597,711, putting Russia’s case burden fourth-highest in the world.
Russia has reported a far lower death rate than other severely affected countries, raising concerns that authorities have downplayed the outbreak.
Data released by the country’s federal statistics service on Thursday indicated an excess of deaths of nearly 165,000 year-on-year between March and October, suggesting that deaths from the virus could be much higher.
The United States buys an additional 100 million doses of Moderna vaccine
The United States said it was buying an additional 100 million doses of the Covid-19 candidate vaccine developed by Moderna, amid reports that the government missed an opportunity to secure more supply of the Pfizer vaccine.
The agreement brings the total number of doses of Moderna purchased by the United States to 200 million, enough to immunize 100 million people with the two-injection regimen.
“Obtaining another 100 million doses of Moderna by June 2021 further expands our supply of doses across the Operation Warp Speed vaccine portfolio,” said Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar.
A statement from the New York state-based biotech firm said the new order would be delivered in the second quarter of 2021, while the first order would be completed in the first quarter.
Total federal funding allocated to Moderna for the mRNA-1273 vaccine, which it developed in conjunction with the National Institutes of Health (NIH), now stands at $ 4.1 billion (3.4 billion euros).
The latest deal comes after media reported that over the summer the US decided not to extend its order for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine beyond the 100 million doses it had initially ordered, allowing others to countries buy a precious supply.
An emergency use authorization is believed to be imminent for Pfizer’s jab, which is also a two-dose regimen, after a committee of independent experts voted in favor Thursday.
A similar expert panel will convene to discuss the Modern-NIH vaccine on December 17, and emergency approval could follow shortly thereafter.
It has been found to be 94.1% effective in a clinical trial involving 30,000 people.
Both pioneers use mRNA (messenger ribonucleic acid) technology, a new approach that provides genetic instructions to human cells to make them express a surface protein from the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
This simulates an infection and prepares the immune system in case it encounters the real virus.
The development of these vaccines is faster than more traditional approaches, which often rely on the use of weakened or inactivated forms of disease-causing microbes.
The main drawback that has been identified so far is that mRNA molecules, which are encased in fatty particles, must be stored at ultra-cold temperatures: -70 degrees Celsius for Pfizer, -20 degrees Celsius for Moderna.
US Health Secretary Says Covid Vaccines Could Begin Monday
Meanwhile, the United States could begin injecting the first Americans with the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine on Monday, the country’s health secretary said.
Alex Azar told news outlets that final details were being worked out, after a committee of experts convened by regulators voted to grant emergency approval of the two-dose vaccine for people 16 years of age and older.
The Food and Drug Administration issued a statement saying it had told Pfizer that it would now “work quickly to finalize and issue an emergency use authorization.”
Azar told ABC News that authorities were working with Pfizer on logistics and “we could see people getting vaccinated on Monday, Tuesday next week.”
“So it’s very close. Actually, it’s just the last point of I and T junction,” he added.
Those unfinished business include preparing a fact sheet for doctors, Azar told Fox Business.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said 170,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine will be in New York on Sunday or Monday and an additional 346,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine will be in New York in the week of Dec. 21.
Cuomo said indoor dining in New York City will stop on Monday as Covid-19 hospitalizations are not stabilizing and the infection rate rises.
The governor acknowledged that indoor dining is not at the top of a list of settings driving the surge in new cases led by family gatherings, but said the rise in hospitalizations and high density in New York City were worrying factors.
“You put the CDC’s caution on indoor dining along with the transmission rate, the density, and the crowding, that’s a bad situation,” Cuomo said at a news conference.
Once the vaccine receives an emergency use authorization (US), the federal government’s Operation Warp Speed program will monitor its distribution to thousands of sites across the country.
Before that happens, a committee from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also has to recommend the vaccine, then the agency itself has to accept that recommendation.
The first of these meetings takes place today and the second on Sunday, but at this stage they are considered pro forma.
The expert committee voted 17 in favor, four against and one abstention, on the approval of the Pfizer vaccine, which a clinical trial has shown to be 95% effective.
Brazil studies 58 cases of reinfection by Covid-19 – ministry of health
Brazil’s Ministry of Health is studying 58 suspected cases of Covid-19 reinfection after confirming the first case of a person being reinfected with the disease caused by the coronavirus, a ministry spokeswoman said.
The first case was that of a health worker in the northern city of Natal, a 37-year-old woman who tested positive in June and again 116 days later in October, the ministry reported yesterday.
The reinfection was confirmed by the FioCruz biomedical research center in Rio de Janeiro, it said in a statement.
So far 58 suspected cases of reinfection have been reported and are being studied, the spokeswoman said.
The cases involve people who have tested positive and their reinfection must be confirmed as a separate infection and not as a recurrence of the same infection, he said.
The FioCruz researcher who did the genetic sequencing of the Natal case infection, Paola Resende, said it appeared that the woman did not generate enough antibodies to avoid re-infection more than 90 days later.
Ms Resende told Reuters that the woman was infected with a separate strain of coronavirus the second time.
“The pathogen in the sample collected in June belonged to the B.1.1.33 strain and the October sample was from the B.1.1.28 strain. Both had already been detected in Brazil,” he said.
Brazil reported 53,030 additional confirmed cases of the new coronavirus in the last 24 hours and 646 deaths from Covid-19, the Ministry of Health said.
The South American country has registered 6,834,829 cases since the pandemic began, while the official death toll has risen to 180,411, according to ministry data.
Brazil has the second highest death toll in the world behind the United States and the third highest number of cases behind the United States and India.
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