British Grandma Is 1st In World To Get Pfizer Covid-19 Vaccine Outside Trial

 An early riser, Keenan received the jab at her local hospital in Coventry, central England, on Tuesday morning at 0631 GMT, a week before she turns 91.

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World News/Covid-19 Vaccine Tracker: Margaret Keenan, a 90-year-old grandmother from Northern Ireland , became the first person within the world on Tuesday to receive the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine shot outside of a trial as Britain began vaccinating its population.

An early riser, Keenan received the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine at her local hospital in Coventry, central England, on Tuesday morning at 0631 GMT, a week before she turns 91.

Also Read| Pfizer wants approval for emergency use in India after UK

A video showed Keenan being pushed in a wheelchair out of the ward while nursing staff clad in protective gear lined the corridor to applaud and cheer, in an echo of moving video clips released through the year when COVID-19 survivors finally left hospital.

Britain is the first Western country to start out immunising its general population in what has been hailed as a decisive watershed in defeating the coronavirus.

Also Read|UK approved Pfizer-BioNtech's COVID-19 vaccine, Vaccination starting from next week

"I feel so privileged to be the first person vaccinated against COVID-19," said Keenan, as she received the shot from a nurse originally from the Philippines in front of a photographer and television crew.

"It's the best early birthday present I could wish for because it means I can finally look forward to spending time with my family and friends in the new year after being on my own for most of the year."

Keenan, referred to as Maggie to her friends, is a former jewellery shop assistant who only retired four years ago. She has a daughter, a son and 4 grandchildren.

Video footage showed her wearing a light blue mask, a gray cardigan along with a blue t-shirt with a penguin in snow and therefore the message "Merry Christmas" as she received the shot in her left arm from nurse May Parsons.

Also Read|Covid-19 Vaccine: Serum Institute will apply for emergency authorisation in next 2 weeks

"We Will Beat This Together"

Parsons, one among many thousands of individuals from round the world employed in Britain's National Health Service (NHS), where she has worked for twenty-four years, said the last few months had been tough, but there was now light at the end of the tunnel.

Britain is the worst-hit European country from COVID-19, with over 61,000 deaths. Prime Minister Boris Johnson hopes to show the tide against the disease by rolling out the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine before the united states or European Union .

The mass inoculation will fuel hope the world may be turning a corner in the fight against an epidemic that has crushed economies and killed over 1.5 million, although ultra-cold storage and tricky logistics will limit its use for now.

"Thank you to our NHS, to all of the scientists who worked so hard to develop this vaccine, to all the volunteers - and to everyone who has been following the rules to protect others," Johnson said on Twitter.

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"We will beat this together."

British Health Secretary Matt Hancock and Stephen Powis, medical director for NHS England, said they both found it very emotional watching the vaccine programme rollout.

The BBC said the second patient to receive the jab in Britain was a person named william shakespeare from Warwickshire.

Britain has ordered 40 million doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech shot. As everyone requires two doses, that's enough to vaccinate 20 million people within the country of 67 million.

About 800,000 doses are expected to be available within the first week, with care home residents and carers, the over-80s and some health service workers the highest priority to get them.

Pfizer wants approval for emergency use in India after UK

 Pfizer Inc submitted application to DCGI seeking emergency use authorisation on Dec 4; also seeks permission to import vaccine for sale and distribution in India.

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World News/Covid-19 Vaccine Tracker: Pfizer has become the primary company to seek emergency use approval of its vaccine candidate in India after getting clearance within the UK and Bahrain. Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE vaccine candidate, BNT162b2, has shown 95 per cent efficacy against coronavirus during a preliminary clinical trial data analysis. It's sought approval from the Drugs Controller General of India for emergency use authorisation. the development is significant since Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during an all-party meet on Friday, cited experts to mention that India could have the first coronavirus vaccine in weeks and that eight vaccines are going to be manufactured in India.

Also Read| UK approved Pfizer-BioNtech's COVID-19 vaccine, Vaccination starting from next week

Pfizer, in its application submitted on December 4, has sought permission to import the vaccine for sale and distribution in India. It also sought the waiver of clinical trials on Indian population as per the special provisions under the New Drugs and Clinical Trials Rules, 2019, to urge instant approval for emergency use, a PTI report said.

Also Read| Russia vaccine to be made in India:100 million doses of effective Sputnik V will be made every year, production will start next year

"Pfizer India has submitted an application on December 4 to the DCGI seeking emergency use authorisation (EUA) for its COVID-19 vaccine in India," an official source told the press agency .

AIIMS Delhi Director Dr Randeep Guleria had earlier said that India was in talks with Pfizer-BioNTech regarding its COVID-19 vaccine candidate. He said no such communication had been initiated with Moderna for its experimental COVID-19 vaccine.

Also Read| US Plans to Starts Covid vaccinations by 11 December: Official

The UK became the first country within the world to approve Pfizer and BioNTech coronavirus candidate on December 2 after the Medicines and Healthcare Products regulatory agency (MHRA) found the jab safe. The country has already ordered 40 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine to vaccinate its 20 million population. After the united kingdom , Bahrain has also approved the vaccine for 'emergency use'. Bahrain's drug regulatory body said the approval was granted after a radical analysis and review of all available data.

The approval for Pfizer's vaccine candidate came in just 10 months since it started developing it, which is that the fastest within the history of vaccines. Other countries just like the US and the European Union also are vetting the Pfizer and BioNTech candidate and the one developed by Moderna Inc. 

Notably, Pfizer, BioNTech, Moderna, and Russia's Sputnik V are the sole vaccines that have claimed over 90 per cent efficacy of their respective candidates so far. While Russia had already rolled out Sputnik V for the masses in August, the recently announced data results on the efficacy of Moderna, Pfizer, and BioNTech's vaccines have also raised high hopes. Besides, Swedish drugmaker AstraZeneca and therefore the University of Oxford's vaccine candidate, being developed along side India's Serum Institute, has also achieved 70 per cent efficacy during the preliminary analysis of its Covid-19 trial participants.

UK approved Pfizer-BioNtech's COVID-19 vaccine, Vaccination starting from next week

 A vaccine is seen as the best chance for the planet to get back to some semblance of normality amid a worldwide pandemic which has killed nearly 1.5 million people and upended the worldwide economy.

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World News/Covid-19 Vaccine Tracker: Britain approved Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine on Wednesday, jumping before the united states and Europe to become the West's first country to formally endorse a jab it said should reach the foremost vulnerable people early next week.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson touted the medicine authority's approval as a worldwide win and a ray of hope amid the gloom of the novel coronavirus which has killed nearly 1.5 million people globally, hammered the planet economy and upended normal life.

Britain's Medicines and Healthcare products regulatory agency (MHRA) granted emergency use approval to the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which they say is 95% effective in preventing illness, in record time - just 23 days since Pfizer published the first data from its final stage clinical trial.

"It's fantastic," Johnson said. "The vaccine will begin to be made available across the uk from next week. it's the protection of vaccines that will ultimately allow us to reclaim our lives and get the economy moving again."

The world's big powers are racing for a vaccine for months in an attempt to be first to begin the long road to recovery.

The approval of a vaccine to be used almost exactly a year since the novel coronavirus emerged in Wuhan, China, may be a triumph for science, Pfizer boss Albert Bourla and his German biotechnology partner BioNTech.

China has already given emergency approval for 3 experimental vaccines and has inoculated around 1 million people since July. Russia has been vaccinating frontline workers after approving its Sputnik V shot in August before it had completed late-stage testing on safety and efficacy.

But the european Union's drug regulator said on Wednesday that its longer approval process for COVID-19 vaccines was safer, because it was supported more evidence and checks that the procedure chosen by Britain.

British leaders said that, while they would love to get a jab themselves, priority had to be given to those most in need - the elderly, those in care homes and health workers.

'HISTORIC MOMENT'

The U.S. drugmaker said Britain's emergency use authorization marks a historic moment within the fight against COVID-19. Pfizer announced its vaccine breakthrough on Nov. 9 with stage III clinical trial results.

"This authorization is a goal we have been working toward since we first declared that science will win, and we applaud the MHRA for their ability to conduct a careful assessment and take timely action to help protect the people of the uk," said CEO Bourla.

"As we anticipate further authorisations and approvals, we are focused on moving with the same level of urgency to safely supply a high-quality vaccine around the world."

Britain's medicines regulator approved the vaccine in record time - partly by doing a "rolling" concurrent analysis of knowledge and therefore the manufacturing process while Pfizer raced to conclude trials.

"With 450 people dying of COVID-19 infection every day in the UK, the benefits of rapid vaccine approval outweigh the potential risks," said Andrew Hill, senior visiting research fellow within the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Liverpool.

"However, we need new independent clinical trials to monitor long-term safety and efficacy."

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is about to satisfy on Dec. 10 to debate whether to recommend emergency use authorization of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine and therefore the European Medicines Agency said it could give emergency approval for the shot by Dec. 29.

"The data submitted to regulatory agencies around the world are the result of a scientifically rigorous and highly ethical research and development programme," said Ugur Sahin, chief executive and co-founder of BioNTech.

U.S. media reported on Tuesday that the White House had summoned FDA head Stephen Hahn to discuss why the U.S. agency hadn't moved faster to authorise Pfizer's vaccine.

FIRST IN LINE?

Britain said it might start vaccinating ordinary people early next week after it gets 800,000 doses from Pfizer's manufacturing centre in Belgium. The speed of the rollout depends on how fast Pfizer can manufacture and deliver the vaccine.

Johnson said last month that Britain had ordered 40 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine - enough for slightly below a third of the population as two shots of the jab are needed per person to gain immunity.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said hospitals were ready to receive the shots and vaccination centres would be set up across the country but he admitted distribution would be a challenge as long as the vaccine must be shipped and stored at -70C (-94F), the sort of temperature typical of an Antarctic winter.

Pfizer has said the shots can be kept in thermal shipping boxes for up to 30 days, from up to fifteen days previously guided. Afterwards, the vaccine are often kept at fridge temperatures for up to five days.

Other frontrunners in the vaccine race include U.S. biotech firm Moderna, which has said its shot is 94% successful in late-stage clinical trials. Moderna and Pfizer have developed their shots using new messenger RNA (mRNA) technology.

AstraZeneca said last month its COVID-19 shot, which is based on traditional vaccine technology, was 70% effective in pivotal trials and could be up to 90% effective.

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India says may not need to vaccinate entire population to control COVID-19

 India News/Covid-19 Vaccine Tracker: India may not need to vaccinate all of its 1.3 billion people if it manages to inoculate a critical mass and break the transmission of the coronavirus, senior government officials said on Tuesday.

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Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who toured the facilities of three vaccine makers over the weekend, has emphasized the importance of a vaccine to rein in COVID-19.

India says may not need to vaccinate entire population to control COVID-19

In October, he said that the government was preparing to reach every single citizen as soon as a vaccine was ready.

World Health Organization experts have pointed to a 65%-70% vaccine coverage rate as sufficient to reach population immunity.

“The government has never spoken about vaccinating the entire country,” Rajesh Bhushan, the top bureaucrat in India’s federal health ministry, told a news conference on Tuesday without reference to Modi.

India says may not need to vaccinate entire population to control COVID-19

India currently has the world’s second-highest number of coronavirus infections, behind only the United States, with 9.46 million cases and 137,621 deaths.

India recorded 31,118 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, the lowest daily tally since Nov. 17, data from the health ministry showed.

“...If we are able to vaccinate a critical mass of people, and break that virus transmission, then we may not have to vaccinate the entire population,” Balram Bhargava, Director General of the state-run Indian Council Of Medical Research, said at the press briefing.

India’s plan to roll out a COVID-19 shot in the first few months of 2021 wouldn’t be impacted by an alleged adverse reaction during AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine trial, Bhushan said.

India says may not need to vaccinate entire population to control COVID-19

A 40-year-old Indian man said in a complaint over the weekend that he had suffered serious “neurological and psychological” symptoms after receiving the vaccine in a trial being run by the British drugmaker’s partner, Serum Institute of India.

The incident is currently under investigation.

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Covid-19 Vaccine: Serum Institute will apply for emergency authorisation in next 2 weeks

Russia vaccine to be made in India:100 million doses of effective Sputnik V will be made every year, production will start next year

Covid-19 Vaccine: Serum Institute will apply for emergency authorisation in next 2 weeks

 University of Oxford and AstraZeneca on Monday said that their Covid-19 vaccine was up to 90 per cent effective in late-stage clinical trials.

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World News/Covid-19 Vaccine Tracker : The Serum Institute of India (SII) will apply for emergency license of Covid-19 vaccine within the next fortnight , said chief executive officer Adar Poonawalla on Saturday.

Speaking to reporters through virtual press conference minutes after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to SII’s facility in Pune on Saturday, Poonawalla said, the vaccine, post-authorization, will initially be distributed in India then to African countries.

“We are in process of applying for emergency licensing in the next two weeks. we will have to wait and see when we get the authorisation,” said Poonawalla while responding to an issue on Covishield vaccine’s distribution within the country.

“The vaccine will be distributed initially in India and then we will look at COVAX countries which are mainly in Africa. The united kingdom and European markets are being taken care of by AstraZeneca and Oxford. If they need our help for scaling up production capacity, we are always there to support them.”

The SII, the world’s largest vaccine maker, has signed an agreement to manufacture the vaccine developed by the Jenner Institute of Oxford University together with British-Swedish pharma company AstraZeneca.

University of Oxford and AstraZeneca on Monday said that their Covid-19 vaccine was up to 90 per cent effective in late-stage clinical trials, raising hopes for the arrival of shots in India by the end of the year.

According to Poonawalla, the Covishiled vaccine has proved effective during trials. “What we found in Covishield during trials globally was that there was zero hospitalisation and 60 per cent reduction in sterilizing immunity.”

Poonawala said during PM Modi’s visit to the manufacturing facility at SII, various issues about pricing and logistics also as pros and cons of other vaccine candidates were discussed.

The SII is currently producing 50-60 million doses per month and plans to proportion to 100 million doses by January next year.

“We are producing 50 to 60 million doses per month and post-January, it will be scaled up to 100 million doses a month. we have built the largest pandemic-level facility in Pune and our new campus in Mandri. That was also showcased to the PM with a tour around the facility and a lot of detailed discussions,” Poonawalla further mentioned.

On signing any deal with the govt of India, Poonawalla said there has been no contract signed with centre yet.

“As of now, we don’t have anything in writing on how many doses they will purchase but as indicated by the health ministry, they would need 300-400 million doses by July 2021,” said the SII CEO.

Poonawala also claimed the Oxford drug will be transported easily at normal refrigerator temperatures, unlike a number of the other candidates which require extreme cold storage.

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Russia vaccine to be made in India:100 million doses of effective Sputnik V will be made every year, production will start next year

US Plans to Starts Covid vaccinations by 11 December: Official

Russia vaccine to be made in India:100 million doses of effective Sputnik V will be made every year, production will start next year

 

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• India's pharmaceutical company Hetero ties up with Russian Direct Investment Fund

• Sputnik V free in Russia, for other countries its price will be less than 700 rupees

India News/Covid-19 Vaccine Tracker: The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) and India's pharmaceutical company Hetero have tied up to produce Corona's vaccine Sputnik V. This agreement is to make 100 million doses every year in India. Production will start from next year.

Sputnik V has been created by the Gameleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology of Russia. RDIF is overseeing its production and promotion abroad. The clinical trial for the third phase of the vaccine has been approved. These trials are ongoing in many countries including Belarus, UAE, Venezuela. According to IDIF, the second and third phase trials are going on in India.

More than 50 countries have requested to make 120 million doses of this vaccine. The vaccine will be produced in India, China, Brazil, South Korea and other countries for supply in the global market.

'Big step in the fight against Corona'

Murali Krishna Reddy, Director, International Marketing, Hetero Labs Ltd, said Sputnik V is most effective in treating Kovid-19. We are very pleased with this partnership with RDIF to develop the vaccine. This partnership is another step towards fulfilling our commitment and the Make in India campaign in the fight against Corona.

At the same time, RDIF CEO Kirill Dmitriev said that we are happy to announce the agreement with Hetero. This will pave the way for the production of safe and most effective corona vaccine in India. Thank you for partnering with Hetero. This will help us to increase the production capacity and provide a better solution to the people of India in this challenging period of Corona.

Hetero has over 25 years of experience

Hyderabad based company Hetero is India's leading generic pharmaceutical company. It was founded in 1993 by Dr. BPS Reddy. It is the world's largest manufacturer of anti-retroviral drugs for the treatment of HIV / AIDS. The company has over 25 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry. Hetero's business spans 126 countries.

95% effective Sputnik vaccine

Sputnik has proven to be 95% effective in fighting corona during a trial. The second preliminary analysis of the clinical trial showed that 42 days after the first dose, it showed 95% efficacy. The data was 91.4% 28 days after the dose was given.It will also cost much less than other vaccines. People of Russia will get it for free. For other countries, its price will be less than 700 rupees.

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US Plans to Starts Covid vaccinations by 11 December: Official

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World News/Covid-19 Vaccine traker: The united states hopes to start a sweeping program of Covid vaccinations in early December, the head of the govt coronavirus vaccine effort said Sunday.

"Our plan is to be able to ship vaccines to the immunization sites within 24 hours of approval" by the US Food and Drug Administration, Moncef Slaoui told CNN.

"So I expect maybe on Day Two of the approval, on the 11th or the 12th of December."

FDA vaccine advisors reportedly will meet december 8 to 10 to discuss approving vaccines which Pfizer and Moderna say are a minimum of 95 percent effective.

Two leading vaccine candidates -- one by Pfizer and German partner BioNTech and another by US firm Moderna -- have shown to be 95 percent effective and Pfizer already applied to emergency use approval from US health authorities.

Meanwhile, Pfizer Inc applied to US health regulators on Friday for emergency use authorization (EUA) of its COVID-19 vaccine, the first such application during a major step toward providing protection against the new coronavirus.

The application to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) comes just days after Pfizer and German partner BioNTech SE reported final trial results that showed the vaccine was 95% effective in preventing COVID-19 with no major safety concerns.

Pfizer Chief executive officer Albert Bourla confirmed the application had been made in a video posted on the company's website on Friday afternoon.

The FDA said on Friday it might hold a meeting of the advisory committee on December 10 at which members would discuss the vaccine.

Slaoui estimated that 20 million people across the US may be vaccinated in December, with 30 million per month after that.

US drug regulators on Saturday already gave emergency approval to a Covid-19 antibody therapy -- one used by US President Donald Trump -- and G20 nations were pushing for global "equitable" access to vaccines with worries poorer nations will be left behind.

The US, which recorded 177,552 new infections on Saturday, is now averaging almost 110,000 more daily cases than a month ago. Recently, US FDA approved an antibody cocktail from Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. for coronavirus treatment.

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Moderna vaccine 94.5% effective in preventing COVID-19: success gives world more hope

Moderna vaccine 94.5% effective in preventing COVID-19: success gives world more hope

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World News/Covid-19 Vaccine: Moderna Inc’s experimental vaccine is 94.5% effective in preventing COVID-19 based on interim data from a late-stage trial, the company said on Monday, becoming the second U.S. drugmaker to report results that far exceed expectations.

Together with Pfizer Inc’s vaccine, which is also more than 90% effective, and pending more safety data and regulatory review, the United States could have two vaccines authorized for emergency use in December with as many as 60 million doses of vaccine available this year.

The vaccines, both developed with new technology known as messenger RNA (mRNA), represent powerful tools to fight a pandemic that has infected 54 million people worldwide and killed 1.3 million.

Unlike Pfizer’s vaccine, Moderna’s shot can be stored at normal fridge temperatures, which should make it easier to distribute, a critical factor as COVID-19 cases are soaring, hitting new records in the United States and pushing some European countries back into lockdowns.

“We are going to have a vaccine that can stop COVID-19,” Moderna President Stephen Hoge said in a telephone interview.

Moderna’s interim analysis was based on 95 infections among trial participants who received the vaccine or a placebo. Only five infections occurred in volunteers who received the vaccine mRNA-1273, which is administered in two shots 28 days apart.

“The vaccine is really the light at the end of the tunnel,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infectious diseases expert said. He urged Americans not to let their guard down and to continue washing hands and being vigilant about social distancing.

Even with fast authorization, the vaccines will not come in time for most people celebrating the U.S. Thanksgiving and end-of-year holidays, when families and friends come together - just the types of gatherings public health officials warn against.

Moderna expects to have enough safety data required for U.S. authorization in the next week or so and expects to file for emergency use authorization (EUA) in the coming weeks.

The company’s shares, which have more than quadrupled this year, jumped 8%, while European and U.S. stocks rose. The benchmark S&P 500 rose 1%, while the pan-European STOXX 600 climbed 1.3%. [MKTS/GLOB]

Shares in Pfizer and its partner BioNTech, whose vaccine must be transported at far colder temperatures, fell 4.3% and 16.4% respectively, while Britain’s AstraZeneca, which has yet to release any results from its late-stage vaccine trials, was down 1%.

SEVERE CASES

Moderna’s data provide further validation of the promising but previously unproven mRNA platform, which turns the human body into a vaccine factory by coaxing cells to make virus proteins that the immune system sees as a threat and attacks.

Moderna expects the vaccine to be stable at normal fridge temperatures of 2 to 8 degrees Celsius (36 to 48°F) for 30 days and it can be stored for up to 6 months at -20C.

Pfizer’s vaccine must be shipped and stored at -70C, the sort of temperature typical of an Antarctic winter. It can be stored for up to five days at standard refrigerator temperatures, or for up to 15 days in a thermal shipping box.

The data from Moderna’s trial involving 30,000 volunteers also showed the vaccine prevented cases of severe COVID-19, a question that still remains with the Pfizer vaccine. Of the 95 cases in Moderna’s trial, 11 were severe and all 11 occurred among volunteers who got the placebo.

Moderna, part of the U.S. government’s Operation Warp Speed program, expects to produce about 20 million doses for the United States this year, millions of which the company has already made and is ready to ship if it gets FDA authorization.

“Assuming we get an emergency use authorization, we’ll be ready to ship through Warp Speed almost in hours,” Hoge said. “So it could start being distributed instantly.”

The 95 cases of COVID-19 included several key groups who are at increased risk for severe disease, including 15 cases in adults aged 65 and older and 20 in participants from racially diverse groups.

“We will need much more data and a full report or publication to see if the benefit is consistent across all groups, notably the elderly, but this is definitely encouraging progress, said Stephen Evans, professor of pharmacoepidemiology, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.

The trials were designed to measure whether the vaccines stop people from getting sick rather than whether they prevent transmission, which remains to be tested.

“It is likely that vaccines that prevent symptomatic disease will reduce the duration and level of infectiousness, and thus reduce transmission, but we don’t yet know if this effect will be large enough to make any meaningful difference to the spread of the virus within communities,” said Eleanor Riley, professor of immunology and infectious disease at the University of Edinburgh.

ROLLING REVIEW

Most side effects were mild to moderate. A significant proportion of volunteers, however, experienced more severe aches and pains after taking the second dose, including about 10% who had fatigue severe enough to interfere with daily activities while another 9% had severe body aches. Most of these complaints were generally short-lived, Moderna said.

“These effects are what we would expect with a vaccine that is working and inducing a good immune response,” said Peter Openshaw, professor of experimental medicine at Imperial College London.

The U.S. government, faced with the world’s highest known number of COVID-19 cases, could have access next year to more than 1 billion doses from Moderna and Pfizer, more than needed for the country’s 330 million residents.

The Trump Administration has mainly relied on the development of vaccines and treatments as its response to the pandemic. Moderna has received nearly $1 billion in research and development funding from the U.S. government and has a $1.5 billion deal for 100 million doses. The government has an option for another 400 million doses.

The company hopes to produce between 500 million and 1 billion doses in 2021, split between its U.S. and international manufacturing sites, depending in part on demand.

Europe’s health regulator said on Monday it had launched a real-time “rolling review” of Moderna’s vaccine, as it has done for vaccines from Pfizer and AstraZeneca. Brussels also said it was in talks with Moderna about securing doses.

Other countries such as China and Russia have already begun vaccinations. Russia licensed its Sputnik-V COVID-19 vaccine for domestic use in August before it started large-scale trials. It said on Nov. 11 that its vaccine was 92% effective based on 20 infections in its large trial.

News Source: Reuters

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