Drugmaker
Pfizer, BioNTech to limit delays of vaccine shipments to one week
Pfizer and BioNTech said Saturday they will limit the delays of their vaccine deliveries to just one week, after fears in Europe that shipments of the jabs could be slowed for up to a month. The US drugmaker and its German partner “have developed a plan that will allow the scale-up of manufacturing capacities in Europe and deliver significantly more doses in the second quarter,” they said in a joint statement. “As a result, our facility in Puurs, Belgium will experience a temporary reduction in the number of doses delivered in the upcoming week.” Pfizer and BioNTech pledged that deliveries would be back to the original schedule to the European Union from the week of January 25, with increased delivery from the week of February 15. “To accomplish this, certain modifications of production pr...
EU criticises ‘hasty’ UK approval of coronavirus vaccine
The European Union criticised Britain’s rapid approval of Pfizer and BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine on Wednesday, saying its own procedure was more thorough, after Britain became the first western country to endorse a COVID-19 shot. The move to grant emergency authorisation to the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine has been seen by many as a political coup for UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who has led his country out of the EU and faced criticism for his handling of the pandemic. The decision was made under an ultra-fast, emergency approval process, which allowed the British drugs regulator to temporarily authorise the vaccine only ten days after it began examining data from large-scale trials. In an unusually blunt statement, the European Medicines Agency (EMA), which is in charge of approving COVID...
Europe to pay less than US for Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine
The European Union has struck a deal to initially pay less for Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate than the United States, an EU official told Reuters News Agency as the bloc announced on Wednesday it had secured an agreement for up to 300 million doses. The experimental drug, developed in conjunction with Germany’s BioNTech, is the frontrunner in a global race to produce a vaccine, with interim data released on Monday showing it was more than 90 percent effective at protecting people from COVID-19 in a large-scale clinical trial. Under the EU deal, 27 European countries could buy 200 million doses, and have an option to buy another 100 million. The bloc will pay less than $19.50 per jab, a senior EU official involved in talks with vaccine makers told Reuters, adding that partly reflected ...
