The World Health Organization was due to hold an emergency meeting on May 20 to discuss the recent outbreak of monkeypox, a viral infection more common to west and central Africa, after more than 100 cases were confirmed or suspected in Europe.
Smoking rates declined globally for the first time on record, according to a new report on tobacco use. However, the figures from the Tobacco Atlas report also mask growing numbers of smokers in parts of the world, as well as increased tobacco use among young teenagers in almost half of the countries surveyed.
EVERSANA, the pioneer of next-generation commercial services to the global life sciences industry, and Vector Pharma FZCO of Dubai UAE, the leading full-service distributor for rare disease, oncology and highly specialized therapeutics in the Middle East, North Africa and Turkish markets, announced a strategic partnership to expand services across the Middle East and North African markets.
The Rockefeller Foundation announced the launch of the Global Vaccination Initiative, a $55 million investment over two years to support country-led efforts to fully vaccinate 90% of the most at-risk populations in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean.
COVID-19 infections and deaths are declining in most of the Americas, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) said on March 16, with the exception of the Caribbean and Atlantic Ocean Islands where cases increased by 56.6 percent in the past week.
Moderna Inc. plans to develop and begin testing vaccines targeting 15 of the world’s most worrisome pathogens by 2025 and will permanently waive the company’s COVID-19 vaccine patents for shots intended for certain low-income and middle-income countries.
BioNTech’s co-founder and top executive said the vaccine maker has no plans to enforce its intellectual property rights should organizations in Africa strike out on their own to produce unauthorized versions of the company’s shot.
The European Union and the Gates Foundation will invest over 100 million euros ($113.4 million) during the next five years to help set up an African medicines regulator to boost the continent’s drugs and vaccine production, the EU Commission said on February 15.
The coronavirus pandemic reached a grim new milestone in the United States on Feb. 4 with the nation’s cumulative death toll from COVID-19 surpassing 900,000, even as the daily number of lives lost began to level off, according to data collected by Reuters.
The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Jan. 24 that it was dangerous to assume the Omicron variant would herald the end of COVID-19’s acutest phase, exhorting nations to stay focused to beat the pandemic.
