Pharma

The first stage of the rollout of the vaccines against the coronavirus began with Serum Institute of India - the manufacturer of Oxford University's Covishield - shipping out its first lot of vials. The Union Health Ministry said the inoculation programme, billed as the world's largest, is on track. Four more COVID-19 vaccines are being developed and their manufacturers may...

The first batch of Covishield, the Serum Institute of India's coronavirus vaccine, left Pune early this morning, four days ahead of the nationwide inoculation drive against COVID-19. Amid tight security, three temperature-controlled trucks rolled out of the Serum Institute gates with their precious cargo shortly before 5 am. The trucks carried 478 boxes of the vaccines, each box weighing 32...

Britain said on Sunday it has helped raise $1 billion (818 million euros) from global donors towards the drive to help "vulnerable countries" access coronavirus vaccines, by match-funding contributions. The UK said, in addition, it has committed 548 million pounds to the COVAX Advance Market Commitment (AMC), after matching with 1 pound every $4 pledged by other donors. Canada, Japan and...

India's coronavirus vaccination drive will begin January 16, the government said Saturday evening, hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a high-level meeting with senior officials to review the Covid situation in the country and finalise vaccine roll-out details. The Prime Minister called the news a "landmark step forward in fighting COVID-19". Priority will be given to around one crore healthcare...

The EU has struck a deal to double its supply of the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine against Covid-19 to a total of 600 million doses, European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said on Friday. "We have right now, access to 300 million doses of the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine... With the new agreement we could purchase a total of up to an additional...

The European Medicines Agency said on Wednesday that it had given the green light for US firm Moderna's coronavirus vaccine, the second jab for the disease to be cleared for use in the EU. "EMA has recommended granting a conditional marketing authorisation for Covid-19 Vaccine Moderna to prevent coronavirus disease 2019 in people from 18 years of age," the Amsterdam-based...

Brazil's government said on Tuesday that India is not restricting the export of coronavirus vaccines made there, which the South American country aims to buy and import within weeks. In a joint statement, the Brazilian Foreign Ministry and Health Ministry said talks between Brazil's Fiocruz biomedical center and the Serum Institute of India to ship finished doses of the AstraZeneca...

Scientists are not fully confident that COVID-19 vaccines will work on a new variant of the coronavirus found in South Africa, ITV's political editor said on Monday, citing an unidentified scientific adviser to the British government. British Health Secretary Matt Hancock said earlier on Monday that he was incredibly worried about the new variant. Public Health England did not answer...

Following accounts of potential allergies to the COVID-19 vaccines produced by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, scientists have outlined steps on safely receiving the second dose of the therapeutic in individuals who develop a reaction to their first dose. The research, published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology: In Practice, summarised what is currently known about allergic reactions to vaccines...

India's drug regulator, Drugs Controller General of India, is set to approve on Friday a coronavirus vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University for emergency use, three sources with knowledge of the matter said. The decision would pave the way for the vaccine's rollout in the world's second-most populous country which, after the United States, has the highest number of...