The European Commission said on Aug. 31 that 70 percent of the European Union’s adult population was fully vaccinated against Covid-19, hitting a target the EC set at the beginning of 2021.
The Covid-19 vaccines available in the United States are still highly effective at preventing hospitalization but their effectiveness against new infections has decreased as the Delta variant spread, according to new studies published on Aug. 18 in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. A different study suggests children’s noses may be better than adults’ at defending against infection because of “pre-activated” immunity against the coronavirus.
Merck won U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for a first-of-its-kind oral hypoxia-inducible factor-2 alpha (HIF-2α) inhibitor that is used to treat a rare genetic disease that causes benign and cancerous tumors in blood vessels associated with renal cell carcinoma.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Jazz Pharmaceuticals’ Xywav for idiopathic hypersomnia in adults.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the combination of Merck’s anti-PD-1 therapy Keytruda plus Eisai’s orally available multiple receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor Lenvima for the first-line treatment of adult patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC).
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved GlaxoSmithKline plc’s Nucala (mepolizumab), a monoclonal antibody that targets interleukin-5, as a treatment for patients with chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps (CRSwNP).
U.S. health regulators approved Roche’s arthritis drug Actemra for emergency use to treat hospitalized Covid-19 patients, giving an extra boost to a medicine that was already allowed to be administered on compassionate grounds.
U.S. scientists are expanding a government-funded study that aims to directly answer the question of whether Moderna Inc.’s Covid-19 vaccine curbs the spread of SARS-CoV-2.
Younger adults are seeking out Covid-19 vaccines at a slower rate than older adults, and if that pace of vaccination continues through August, vaccine coverage among younger adults will not reach levels achieved with older adults, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported on June 21.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Pfizer Inc.’s Prevnar 20 (Pneumococcal 20-valent Conjugate Vaccine) for the prevention of invasive disease and pneumonia caused by the 20 Streptococcus pneumoniae (pneumococcus) serotypes in the vaccine in adults ages 18 years and older.
