The United Kingdom, which was the first to grant authorization to the vaccine developed by Pfizer and Moderna, is expected to give the green light to the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University this week.
Countries across the globe shut their borders to Britain on Dec. 21 due to fears about a highly infectious new coronavirus strain, causing travel chaos and raising the prospect of food shortages days before Britain is set to leave the European Union.
The global tally of confirmed coronavirus cases hit 60 million on Nov. 25, with the pace of new infections accelerating and the United States reporting record numbers of hospitalizations, according to a Reuters tally.
South Korea’s Celltrion Inc. received emergency use authorization (EUA) from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the rapid Covid-19 testing kit Sampinute, which boosted shares of the company and its affiliates.
South Korean drugmaker Daewoong Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. received regulatory approval for Phase 1 clinical trials of the company’s anti-parasitic niclosamide drug to treat Covid-19 patients.
Novavax Inc. said South Korea’s SK bioscience would manufacture a component of the U.S. drug developer’s experimental coronavirus vaccine in a bid to boost the clinical-stage biotechnology company’s supply.
South Korean epidemiologists found that people were more likely to contract the new coronavirus from members of their own households than from contacts outside the home.
The European health regulator is looking to fast-track approval of Gilead’s antiviral remdesivir as a potential COVID-19 treatment in Europe.
A top U.S. scientist said governments should not count on a successful vaccine against COVID-19 being developed anytime soon when deciding whether to ease restrictions imposed to curb the pandemic.
Despite infecting more than 3 million people around the world, there are 34 countries and territories that have not reported a single case of the novel coronavirus.