Pharma

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...

Belarus on Tuesday began a vaccination drive against coronavirus using the Sputnik V jab, becoming the first country outside Russia to use the vaccine developed by Moscow. Belarus, with a population of around 9.5 million people, has registered more than 188,000 cases of coronavirus infections and nearly 1,400 deaths. "Today the first vaccine shipment has arrived in Belarus," said the Russian...

Several states on Monday began a trial run of Covid-19 vaccine delivery systems, with health officials checking everything from technology platforms to the storage infrastructure that will be needed to inoculate millions of its citizens. India aims to deliver 600 million coronavirus shots in the next six to eight months starting in January, with emergency use approval for the Oxford/AstraZeneca...

The Oxford coronavirus vaccine will "protect 95 per cent of patients" and is "as effective as the Pfizer and Moderna" alternatives, Pascal Soriot, chief executive of AstraZeneca, told British daily The Sunday Times, adding scientists had figured out a "winning formula to get efficacy up there with everybody else". However, AstraZeneca, a British-Swedish pharma giant, has yet to release data...

Russia on Saturday approved its main COVID-19 vaccine, Sputnik V, for use by people over the age of 60, Russian news agencies cited the health ministry as saying. People over 60 have thus far been excluded from Russia's national inoculation programme, as the shot was tested on this age group separately.

The US government will pay Pfizer Inc nearly $2 billion for 100 million additional doses of its Covid-19 vaccine to bolster its supply as the country deals with a nationwide surge in infections. Under the new agreement, Pfizer will deliver at least 70 million doses by June 30 and the rest no later than July 31, the company said on...

Singapore received Asia's first delivery of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine on Monday, capping what the city-state's premier said had been a "long and arduous" year spent fighting the pandemic. The trade and finance hub last week joined a handful of other countries around the world, including Britain and the United States, which have approved the jab. It plans to innoculate its...

Moderna Inc said on Saturday the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices voted to recommend the use of the company's COVID-19 vaccine on people 18 years of age and older. The panel voted 11-0 in favor of the vaccine, the company said in a press release. The vote result came a day after the...

The Oxford University vaccine against COVID-19 being produced by AstraZeneca is likely to get regulatory approval from the UK's independent regulator by the end of this year for a rollout to begin in early 2021, according to a UK media report. The Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency (MHRA), which had been formally tasked by the UK government last month with...

India will produce about 300 million doses of Russia's Sputnik V coronavirus vaccines next year, a Russian official was quoted as saying, nearly three times the previously known number as deals have been signed with more manufacturers. Russia is already testing the first samples of Sputnik V that were produced in India, its embassy in New Delhi said on Twitter...