In the news this week, the race for a vaccine begins to near its conclusion as the U.S. and U.K. continue to buy up supplies of promising vaccines, and Moderna comes under criticism for its steep prices that make the customer ‘pay twice’. In other news, almost 750,000 COVID tests have been recalled in the U.K. over safety.

U.K. REACHES DEAL FOR 90 MILLION DOSES OF COVID-19 VACCINES – The U.K. government has secured early access to two coronavirus vaccines for its stockpile. These come from J&J’s Jansson and US biotech Novavax. These purchases bring the country’s reserve doses to 340 million across six experimental vaccines. The vaccines will be delivered to the UK halfway through 2021 if they’re proven safe and effective. 

MODERNA WINS MAJOR DEAL AS  ‘TAXPAYER FUNDED’ COVID-19 VACCINE COMES UNDER CRITICISM – Moderna has reached a $1.5 billion deal with the U.S. government to deliver 100 million doses of its mRNA vaccine candidate, should it prove successful in late-stage testing. An option for another 400 million doses is included in the deal. A two-dose regimen of the vaccine is set to charge $30.50, the highest of the ‘Operation Warp Speed’ companies. This has raised criticisms that the company is using tax-payer money to fund 100% of its research and making the country ‘pay twice’. 

ALMOST 750,000 U.K. COVID TESTS RECALLED OVER SAFETY CONCERNS – Up to 750,000 unused COVID-19 tests from diagnostics company Randox have been recalled over safety concerns. The government has commissioned a lab to determine whether the sterility of one supplier of Randox swabs, according to international standards. 

In other news:

Clinical Trials
J&J and Moderna falling behind in race for COVID vaccine

Manufacturing
Celleron buys licence to develop and manufacturer Roche’s rare cancer drug emactuzumab
Pfizer to manufacture Gilead’s remdesivir

That’s all for now. See you next week!

Joshua Neil, Editor
Proventa International

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