Pfizer
Pfizer vaccine ready for distribution as SAHPRA approves emergency use
South Africa has already ordered 20 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine, which is now available for use via an instrument used for emergency access use of...
The latest tie-up involves US giant Merck which agreed to help produce the potentially key one-shot vaccine developed by Johnson & Johnson.
But this has been met with criticism as some believe ministers are using this opportunity to jump the queue to get their hands on the lifesaving jabs.
The projections came as Pfizer projected full-year 2021 sales of between $59.4 billion and $61.4 billion, meaning that about one-fourth of estimated total sales will come from the COVID-19 vaccine.
None of the world's 29 poorest countries has formally started mass vaccination drives, while the richest nations have given more than two-thirds of jabs administered.
Pfizer said the modifications at the Puurs factory were necessary in order to ramp up its production capacity from mid-February of the vaccine developed with Germany's BioNTech.
The Spanish branch of Pfizer informed Madrid on Sunday night of the delay in shipments to the eight nations due to a 'problem in the loading and shipment process' at its plant in Belgium, the health ministry said in a statement.
The FDA issued an emergency use authorization for the two-dose regimen late on Friday night following reports President Donald Trump had threatened to fire the head of the agency if he didn't act that day.
Pfizer scientist Kathrin Jansen told the panel this was a result of the innovative messenger RNA technology behind the vaccine, an approach that has never before been approved.
The shipment was the first of eight million doses ordered from US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer BioNTech.
As Britain on Tuesday became the first Western country to start a mass coronavirus vaccine campaign, using the new Pfizer-BioNTech jab, Bourla said people should feel confident that it is safe and effective.
An independent committee advising the FDA will meet Thursday on the matter, after Britain became the first country to greenlight the vaccine last week.
The United Kingdom has given pharmaceutical company Pfizer emergency authorisation to introduce its coronavirus vaccine with the aim to start roll out next week. #Covid19 #vaccinne
After months of 'rigorous' clinical trials and thorough analysis of the data, the MHRA 'concluded that the vaccine has met its strict standards of safety, quality and effectiveness', the statement added.
The two companies said they had submitted an application to the European Medicines Agency (EMA) on Monday seeking "Conditional Marketing Authorisation (CMA)" for their vaccine.
The recent success of vaccine trials has provided some global hope of beating COVID-19. But when will South Africans be able to get their hands on it? We spoke to the country's top scientists to find.
The companies this week announced that a completed study of trials of the product showed it was 95% effective in protecting people from coronavirus infection.
Many more vaccine trial results are likely to follow in the coming months, so it’s necessary to dig deeper to find out exactly what any new results mean.
The results from the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine trial are promising, but there’s a lot more we now need to confirm.