A look at the latest updates on COVID-19 vaccines across the globe

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Summary

• Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna’s COVID-19 shot reduced the risk of infection by 80% after the first of two doses.
• Moderna transported almost 100 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine to the US government.
• Russia registers a single-shot Sputnik-Light COVID-19 vaccine, while Novavax to get GSK’s support for vaccine manufacturing.
• Canada suspended Oxford/AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine for people under 55 years amid blood clot concern.

With millions of individuals receiving their vaccine shots daily worldwide, researchers are still concerned that it will possibly take years to immunize most of the world’s population against COVID-19. Health authorities are also showing concern to protect the world against the virus with herd immunity. Recently, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) stated that getting children vaccinated is vital to reach herd immunity.

READ MORE: Experts believe vaccinating children is key to achieving herd immunity

With this backdrop, let us quickly glance through the latest COVID-19 updates from nook and cranny-

Pfizer and Moderna’s vaccines highly effective after the first dose

Some media reports mention that as per the real-world data from a US study, COVID-19 vaccines shots developed by Pfizer Inc (NYSE:PFE)-BioNTech SE (Nasdaq:BNTX) and Moderna reduced the risk of infection by 80% within 14 days or more after the first vaccine dose.  

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The real-world findings revealed that the risk of infection fell 90% by two weeks after the second shot.

The US CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) study evaluated the vaccines’ ability to protect against COVID-19, including asymptomatic infections.

Moderna dispatched 100 million vaccine doses to the US Govt

On 29 March 2021, Moderna Inc (Nasdaq:MRNA) updated the market that the Company shipped almost 100 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine to the US government.

Moderna anticipates meeting its commitment by delivering the second batch of 100 million vaccine shots by the end of May and the third batch by the end of July 2021. Further, the Company expects to ship 40-50 million doses per month to the US government.

Russia registers Sputnik-Light COVID-19 vaccine

The Russian Ministry of Health has obtained the required documents for the registration of the Sputnik Light COVID-19 vaccine, developed by the Gamaleya Epidemiology and Microbiology Center.

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Gamaleya’s Sputnik Light vaccine will be the second single-shot COVID-19 vaccine to be registered. The first one is the vaccine developed by Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ), the only single-shot jab granted the World Health Organization's authorization (WHO).

Novavax to get GlaxoSmithKline’s support for vaccine manufacturing

Novavax Inc (NYSE:NVAX), GlaxoSmithKline (LON:GSK) and the UK Government Vaccines Taskforce have entered into an agreement to provide support to the manufacturing of up to 60 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine of Novavax (NVX-CoV2373) for use in the UK.

With this agreement, GSK will offer fill and finish manufacturing capacity at its Barnard Castle facility in the North East of England beginning as early as May 2021.

President and Chief Operations Officer of Novavax commented-

The Company highlighted that the vaccine submission for review by UK regulatory authorities is anticipated during the second quarter of 2021.

Canada halts AstraZeneca vaccine for people under 55

Canada suspended the Oxford/AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine for people under 55 years after the rising concerns of rare blood clots related to the vaccine. The temporarily pause was advised by the National Advisory Committee on Immunization for safety reasons.

Moreover, the immunization panel stated that there is significant uncertainty around the vaccine’s advantage, given the risk of blood coagulation.

UAE to manufacture Sinopharm’s COVID-19 vaccine

A new pharmaceutical firm in Abu Dhabi will commence manufacturing the COVID-19 vaccine from Sinopharm under a joint venture (JV) agreement between Abu Dhabi-based technology company Group 42 (G42) and Sinopharm.

Lately, Gulf Pharmaceutical Industries PSC has signed a contract to initiate COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing from April.

Source: Copyright © 2020 Kalkine Media Pty Ltd