Pharma

Oxford University's Covid-19 vaccine candidate has a better immune response when a two full-dose regime is used rather than a full-dose followed by a half-dose booster, the university said on Thursday, citing data from early trials. The developers of the vaccine candidate, which has been licensed to pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, have already published later stage trial results showing higher efficacy when...

India will have to spend $1.4 billion to $1.8 billion in the first phase of a coronavirus vaccination programme, even after getting support under the COVAX global vaccine-sharing scheme, according to estimates by the GAVI vaccines alliance. India, which has the world's second highest caseload of coronavirus behind the United States, plans to inoculate 300 million people over the next...

Covaxin - one of three coronavirus vaccine candidates being considered for emergency use authorisation in India - induced an immune response and registered no serious adverse events, interim findings of Phase I trials have revealed. The vaccine induced a neutralising antibody (an immune response) and was well-tolerated in all dose groups with no vaccine-related serious adverse events, pre-publication data showed. After the...

Cipla shares gained nearly 5 per cent to top the gainers list on the BSE after the pharma major announced settlement of its patent litigation with Celgene Corporation, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bristol Myers Squibb, in the United States. The shares of Cipla touched an intra-day high of ₹ 792.80, up 4.8 per cent in early trading on the...

The US Food and Drug Adminstration on Friday granted the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine an emergency use authorization, paving the way for its imminent rollout across the country. "I am authorizing the emergency use of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID‑19 Vaccine for the prevention of COVID-19," Denise Hinton, the agency's chief scientist wrote in a letter to a Pfizer executive. President Donald Trump said the...

Britain's AstraZeneca said on Friday it would investigate combining its experimental COVID-19 vaccine with Russia's Sputnik V vaccine candidate, a move Russian scientists have suggested could sharply boost efficacy. The developers of Sputnik V suggested on Twitter last month that AstraZeneca try the combination. "Sputnik V is happy to share one of its two human adenoviral vectors with AstraZeneca to increase...

An expert committee convened by the US Food and Drug Administration voted heavily in favor of recommending the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine for emergency use approval on Thursday. The final voting tally was 17 in favor, four against and one abstention. The committee was tasked with answering whether, "based on the totality of scientific evidence available, do the benefits of the Pfizer-BioNTech...

India, the world's biggest vaccine maker, is getting set for the massive global blitz to contain the coronavirus pandemic with its pharmaceutical industry and partners freeing up capacity and accelerating investments even without firm purchase orders. India manufactures more than 60% of all vaccines sold across the globe, and while its $40 billion pharmaceutical sector is not yet involved in...

Serum institute and Bharat Biotech's proposals for emergency vaccine use were not cleared today over inadequate safety and efficacy data, sources said on Wednesday. The two have been asked by a panel of experts to provide more data. "Both proposals are not approved due to inadequate safety and efficacy data available currently. Both have been asked for more data," the...

The Indian equity benchmarks rose to new highs on Wednesday as sustained buying of Indian equities by foreign institutional investors (FIIs) and news of progress in Covid-19 vaccine development cheered investors' sentiment. The Sensex rose as much as 555 points to hit a record high of 46,164.10 and Nifty 50 index climbed above 13,500 for the first time. HDFC...