The head of the World Trade Organization said there was a pathway for a global deal to get more Covid-19 vaccines to developing countries, despite a split over whether drugs firms should be stripped of their intellectual property rights.
An experimental monoclonal antibody treatment for Covid-19 being developed by Eli Lilly and Co. and AbCellera Biologics Inc. can “potently” neutralize numerous coronavirus variants, including those first identified in the UK, Brazil, South Africa, California and New York, scientists found in test tube experiments. According to another study, some Covid-19 survivors infected early in the pandemic still have detectable antibodies against the virus a year later.
Coronavirus-related deaths worldwide crossed 3 million on April 6, according to a Reuters tally, as the latest global resurgence of Covid-19 infections is challenging vaccination efforts across the globe.
Novavax Inc. said on April 5 participants in the company’s Covid-19 vaccine trials in South Africa and the UK can receive additional shots, ensuring those who received a placebo can also get the active vaccine.
South Africa delayed the distribution of the AstraZeneca-University of Oxford Covid-19 vaccine after data suggested it “provides minimal protection” against mild disease from the South African variant.
A potent coronavirus variant originating in South Africa and found to be partly resistant to current vaccines and antibody treatments was detected for the first time in the United States in two South Carolina patients, health officials said.
Novavax Inc. said the company’s coronavirus vaccine was 89.3% effective in preventing Covid-19 in a trial conducted in the United Kingdom, and was nearly as effective in protecting against the more highly contagious variant first discovered in the UK, according to a preliminary analysis.
The data continues to come in on the various Covid-19 variants, and so far the news is pretty good, according to BioSpace.
Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccine appeared to lose only a small bit of effectiveness against an engineered virus with three key mutations from the new coronavirus variant found in South Africa, according to a laboratory study conducted by the U.S. drugmaker.
Laboratory testing found that Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc.’s Covid-19 antibody cocktail can combat a coronavirus variant first found in South Africa, but a similar drug from Eli Lilly and Co. is inactive against it, according to a study.
