The state of the fight:
Moderna shared new Phase 2/3 data supporting the use of Spikevax in children under age 6.
Moderna claimed clinical trial success for its vaccine in children ages 6 months to under 6 years. An interim analysis of Phase 2/3 results showed a “…
The state of the fight:
Pfizer/BioNTech’s Comirnaty appeared to offer only 12% effectiveness against Omicron in children ages 5-11.
Pfizer/BioNTech’s Comirnaty is far less protective against infection in children ages…
The state of the fight:
South Africa’s Afrigen has produced the first batch of its version of Moderna’s mRNA-based vaccine.REGULATORY UPDATES
Pfizer and BioNTech have begun rolling data submission for authorization of their Comirnaty shot in children between ages 6 months and 5 years “at the request” of the U.S…
The state of the fight:
Regeneron and Roche’s REGEN-COV became the first antibody drug to score U.S. FDA clearance for post-exposure prophylaxis of Covid-19.New, six-month Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine…
The state of the fight:
South Africa’s Biovac will fill-finish the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.Regulatory updates
Sanofi’s “Vidprevtyn” under rolling review: The EMA announced Tuesday it has begun reviewing the recombinant protein Covid-19 vaccine candidate, which uses a GSK adjuvant. Sanofi also expects real…
WHO announced Monday that the COVAX partnership’s first Covid-19 mRNA vaccine technology transfer hub will launch with a South African consortium comprising Biovac, Afrigen Biologics and Vaccines, a “network of universities,” and the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
A press release quoted WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus as saying Covid-19 had “highlighted the importance of local production to address health emergencies,” while South Africa’s…
The state of the hunt:
Moderna began clinical trials of its vaccine in children.
Vaccines
Approved or authorized vaccines
AZ jab is safe, EMA reaffirms—but will uptake suffer? A European Medicines Agency (EMA) risk assessment committee concluded a preliminary review…
Johannesburg’s University of the Witwatersrand will collaborate with Cape Town’s Biovac, helping the South African government-backed biopharma “build specialist skills capacity” to produce viral-vectored vaccines, the university announced last week.
Through Wits Enterprise—a private company owned by the university—an academic team specializing in adenovirus-vectored vaccines will train Biovac to generate engineered viruses for possible use against Covid-19 and other diseases, per the…
The state of the hunt:
COVAX has inked a deal for up to 40 million doses of Pfizer/BioNTech’s vaccine.
Vaccines
Approved or authorized vaccines
China’s Sinovac jab more effective using three-week interval: A silver lining has emerged to last week’s middling news from the Butantan Institute’s…
South Africa’s government-backed Biovac has yet to complete a technology transfer with Sanofi for its acellular hexavalent vaccine, a local media interview with the biotech’s CEO revealed last week. When Biovac announced the Sanofi agreement in July 2019, it said it would begin manufacturing hexa by the third quarter of this year. Instead, the technology transfer process remains ongoing, albeit “at an advanced stage,” per IOL.