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Updated 48 minutes ago
The PRESIDENT OF THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION, Ursula von der Leyen, has said that the Commission will authorize tomorrow a contract for up to 300 million doses of the vaccine BioNTech and Pfizer.
The announcement follows news from the two companies yesterday that the vaccine was 90% effective in its phase 3 trial, which involved more than 40,000 participants.
Von der Leyen described the vaccine today as “the most promising yet.”
“Once this vaccine is available, our plan is to quickly implement it anywhere in Europe. This will be the fourth contract with a pharmaceutical company to buy vaccines. And more will come. Because we need to have a broad portfolio of vaccines based on different technologies, ”he said.
“We have already started working with Member States to prepare national vaccination campaigns.
“We are almost there. In the meantime, let’s be careful and stay safe.”
The Commission has also reached agreements with three other companies that have a vaccine in development:
- Agreed with AstraZeneca to purchase 300 million doses with the option to purchase an additional 100 million.
- It signed a contract to buy up to 300 million doses of the Sanofi-GSK vaccine.
- Approved a contract with Janssen Pharmaceutica NV to purchase 200 million vaccines with the possibility of acquiring another 200 million.
All of these agreements are based on the vaccine being shown to be safe and effective once it has undergone regulatory evaluations.
Yesterday’s announcement was greeted with caution by world leaders and health officials who described it as a positive step.
At yesterday’s Covid-19 Health Department briefing, Chief Medical Officer Dr. Tony Holohan said that it is “certainly time to celebrate” as the trial is not yet complete and regulatory authorities have yet to they will have to inspect the data when it is published.
Dr. Cillian de Gascun, director of the National Virus Reference Laboratory (NVRL) said the news is “positive” but there will still be practical challenges to solve with any vaccine.
“Over 90% effective, if that’s true in the real world, it will be a very good start from a vaccination perspective. Obviously it’s a two-dose program, so there are some potential logistical challenges around that, ”he said.
“The duration of protection is obviously something we don’t know yet. Similarly, we know from media reports that this vaccine requires an ultra-cold chain of minus 80 degrees. So again, logistically it could be difficult to implement, so it won’t be the global solution, but it’s certainly a very positive first step. “
Sinovac candidate suspension
The World Health Organization has said that 44 candidate vaccines are under clinical evaluation and 10 of them are in the final clinical stage of Phase 3.
One of these candidate vaccines, from the Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac, hit a roadblock on the same day that Pfizer / BioNTech were hailed for their success thus far.
Brazilian regulators halted trials of the Sinovac vaccine in the South American country citing an “adverse incident” involving a voluntary recipient.
Health regulator Anvisa said it could not give details on what happened due to privacy regulations.
The public health center that coordinates trials of the vaccine in Brazil, the Butantan Institute, said yesterday that it was “surprised” by the decision. The institute “is investigating what happened in detail” and “is at the disposal of the Brazilian regulatory agency to provide any necessary clarification on any adverse incident that clinical trials may have presented,” he said.
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This morning, Sinovac said he is “confident in the safety of the vaccine.” The company also said that the adverse incident in one of its trial volunteers “was not related to the vaccine.”
– With AFP report.
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