The state of Indiana is set to receive more than 55,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine for health care workers next week, with the initial doses going to five pilot hospitals. By the end of next week, additional doses are expected at a total of 50 hospitals throughout the state.
The U.S. gave the final go-ahead Friday to the nation’s first COVID-19 vaccine, marking what could be the beginning of the end of an outbreak that has killed nearly 300,000 Americans.
Doctors are reporting that a two-drug treatment involving a medication from Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly and Co. is especially helpful for COVID-19 patients who need extra oxygen.
Thursday’s meeting of the Food and Drug Administration’s vaccine advisory panel is likely the last step before a U.S. decision to begin shipping millions of doses of the shot, which has shown strong protection against the coronavirus.
British regulators warned Wednesday that people who have a history of serious allergic reactions shouldn’t receive the new Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine as they investigate two adverse reactions that occurred on the first day of the country’s mass vaccination program.
Trump administration officials denied that there would be availability issues in the second quarter, citing other vaccines in the pipeline, but others said problems are possible.
CVS has developed a program to provide the treatments in their homes, but it won’t be available—at least initially—in Indianapolis.
European regulators could approve a coronavirus vaccine developed by drugmakers Pfizer and BioNTech within four weeks, the EU’s drug agency said Tuesday, a time frame that might mean the shot is rolled out first in the United States and Britain.
A City-County Council committee on Monday advanced a proposed tax abatement for a pharmaceutical company that plans to spend $72 million to build a new facility near the Indianapolis International Airport.
Top U.S. infectious-diseases specialist Anthony Fauci said the government “almost certainly” will be vaccinating portions of the U.S. population by the end of December, but the country will likely see a surge in COVID-19 cases before that happens.
AstraZeneca is the third major drug company to report late-stage results for a potential COVID-19 vaccine as the world anxiously waits for scientific breakthroughs that will bring an end to a pandemic.
In a time of political uncertainty, it’s hard to say whether the rules will withstand expected legal challenges from the pharmaceutical industry or whether the incoming Biden administration will accept, amend or try to roll them back entirely.
In a separate development, the FDA on Thursday gave emergency authorization to use of another anti-inflammatory drug sold by Eli Lilly, baricitinib, to be used with remdesivir.
The action comes days after Pfizer Inc. and its German partner BioNTech announced that its vaccine appears 95% effective at preventing mild to severe COVID-19 disease in a large, ongoing study.
Phase III trials are now accumulating the data needed to report results as a renewed surge of the pandemic hits countries around the world.
The announcement from Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech comes as the team is preparing within days to formally ask U.S. regulators to allow emergency use of the vaccine.
Moderna said its vaccine appears to be 94.5% effective, according to preliminary data from the company’s still-ongoing study.
Markets were already sharply higher on the U.S. election result when Pfizer said that research shows vaccine shots may be 90% effective at preventing COVID-19, indicating the company is on track this month to file an emergency-use application with U.S. regulators.
The coronavirus shots, made by Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech, are among 10 possible vaccine candidates in late-stage testing around the world—four of them so far in huge studies in the U.S.
The Biogen drug, known as aducanumab, does not cure or reverse Alzheimer’s, but it might modestly slow the rate of decline.
