Group items tagged

GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi said on Wednesday (December 15) they expect data from late-stage clinical trials of its booster dose of their Covid-19 vaccine candidate in the first quarter, instead of this year, another delay for the potential shot. The news came as two companies said preliminary data from trials showed the single-dose booster provided strong immune responses. They added that they need more time to test the booster on more people who have not been infected by the virus before they can submit data to regulators. The Phase III trial for the recombinant adjuvanted Covid-19 vaccine recruited most participants in the third quarter, coinciding with a significant increase in the number of people infected globally due to the Delta variant, it said. "To provide the necessary data to regulatory authorities for the booster vaccine submission, the trial will continue to accrue the number of events needed for analysis, with results expected in Q1, 2022." No safety concerns were identified. This is the latest delay for the vaccine's development, putting the companies further behind rivals in the race for Covid-19 shots.

British scientists said on Thursday (December 30) they would be studying whether higher doses of a cheap and widely used steroid called dexamethasone could work better for patients with severe Covid-19 compared to the standard low doses. Last year, the same scientists conducting the large trial, dubbed RECOVERY, showed that dexamethasone was able to save the lives of Covid-19 patients in what was called a "major breakthrough" in the coronavirus pandemic. They had found that a 6 mg daily dose of dexamethasone, which is used to reduce inflammation in diseases such as arthritis, cut death rates by around a third among the most severely ill Covid-19 patients in hospitals. "Given how quickly the Omicron variant is spreading, we can expect to see patients admitted to hospital with severe Covid-19 for a while to come," said Peter Horby, an Oxford University professor co-leading the trial.

Health secretary Sajid Javid visited Medicine Chest Pharmacy in London on Friday (January 28) and thanked pharmacy teams across England for delivering well over 20 million Covid-19 jabs. According to the latest research conducted by the National Pharmacy Association (NPA) and PharmData, independent community pharmacies were the biggest deliverers of Covid-19 vaccines during January 2021 to September 2021 as compared to corporate-run pharmacy sites. As of January 2022, pharmacies across the whole sector had delivered 22 million Covid jabs, with the majority of them being independents of whom most are NPA members. In a video message released after the visit, Javid said: "Today I am here at Medicine Chest pharmacy in London to thank them, all pharmacies, the NHS, for the fantastic job they have done particularly over the last few months to get our country boosted. It's because of this phenomenal success that today we are able to return to Plan A as we see Omicron in retreat and we learn to live with Covid."

The NHS on Sunday (January 30) expanded its Covid-19 vaccination programme to include vulnerable children aged five to 11 years. Eligible children include those with diabetes, immunosuppression, learning disabilities, and other conditions as outlined by the UK Health Security Agency in the Green Book. Besides, children living with someone immunosuppressed will be eligible to get the first dose of the Covid vaccine in line with advice issued by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI). According to the NHS there are around 500,000 eligible children in the latest cohort. GP and deputy lead for NHS vaccination programme Dr Nikki Kanani, said: "We know vaccines give significant protection against severe illness from Covid - including the omicron variant, so it is important that our youngest and most at-risk get protected.

The community pharmacy staff in Scotland will not be required to work for a minimum of five full days if they test positive for Covid-19. The Scottish health secretary Humza Yousaf has clarified that health and social care employees, including community pharmacists, will have to follow the guidance on managing staff with symptoms of a respiratory infection, or a positive Covid-19 test. While responding to Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Scottish Labour Party) written parliamentary question, Humza said, "If they work with patients or service users in face-to-face settings, they can return to work if they have had two consecutive negative LFD test results (taken at least 24 hours apart)." Jackie asked the Scottish government, "what its position is on the actions of Well Pharmacy, in light of reports that the company is insisting that staff who test positive for COVID-19 continue to work when they are in patient-facing roles and dealing with clinically vulnerable people?" The Pharmacists' Defence Association said: "This means that Well pharmacy will have to change their policy in Scotland and no longer allow Covid positive staff to work in their pharmacies."

The NHS on Sunday (January 30) expanded its Covid-19 vaccination programme to include vulnerable children aged five to 11 years. Eligible children include those with diabetes, immunosuppression, learning disabilities, and other conditions as outlined by the UK Health Security Agency in the Green Book. Additionally, children living with someone immunosuppressed will be eligible to get the first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine in line with advice issued by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI). According to the NHS, there are around 500,000 eligible children in the latest cohort. GP and deputy lead for NHS vaccination programme Dr Nikki Kanani, said: "We know vaccines give significant protection against severe illness from Covid - including the omicron variant, so it is important that our youngest and most at-risk get protected.

The General Pharmaceutical Council reiterated its stand on Covid-19 vaccination, saying, "Pharmacists and pharmacy technicians working in all settings across Great Britain should be vaccinated against Covid -19, unless they are medically exempt." In a statement issued today (February 11), it strongly urged all pharmacyprofessionals, students and trainees to get fully vaccinated at the earliest. This reiteration follows the government's announcement on January 31, 2022 that it would not proceed with Covid vaccination as a mandatory condition of deployment for health and care staff providing CQC-regulated services in England. The Council stated that clinical trials have proven the efficacy and safety of Covid vaccines and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has authorised their use in the UK.

As the government today (November 15) announced plans to expand Britain's booster programme for Covid-19 vaccinations to cover all adults aged over 40, NHS Confederation welcomed the move. The announcement follows the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) statement that all healthy adults aged 40-49 should be offered a booster, six months after their second dose, and that 16 and 17 year olds should be invited to have a second dose. Accepting the JCVI's advice, health and social care secretary Sajid Javid said: "All 4 parts of the UK intend to follow the JCVI's advice. "We know immunity to Covid-19 begins to wane after 6 months and new data published today shows a third dose boosts protection against symptomatic infection to more than 90% - this highlights just how important it is that everyone eligible gets their top-up jabs as soon as possible."

The government has launched a new campaign over social media and radio today (January 10) to encourage pregnant women to take their first, second and third dose of Covid-19 vaccine. Joined by experts at the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) and the Royal College of Midwives (RCM), the campaign highlights the risks of the infection and benefits of vaccination. According to the latest data from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), Covid-19 vaccinations are safe for pregnant women. Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) chief scientific adviser professor Lucy Chappell, said: "We have extensive evidence now to show that the vaccines are safe and that the risks posed by Covid-19 are far greater," calling upon pregnant women who have yet to have their jabs. The campaign will also run testimonies of pregnant women who have had their jabs.

The new NHS chief executive Amanda Pritchard acknowledged and thanked health service staff and volunteers for their "extraordinary team effort" while the country fights Omicron. Pritchard, who took up the post in July, praised the efforts of doctors, nurses, therapists, porters and other staff who have worked hard to recover services impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. In her first Christmas message as the NHS chief, she praised all those involved in the NHS Covid vaccination programme which delivered more than 7 million jabs, including boosters, in the last 10 days alone. She said: "We've had another extraordinary 12 months. "From January when hospitals admitted 100,000 patients with Covid in a single month, while also delivering the world-class NHS covid vaccination programme; to receiving the George Cross during the summer, marked by a service at St Paul's, pulling out all the stops to make progress on recovering backlogs of care; and now facing the uncertainty of Omicron and winter pressures.

Community pharmacies played a central role in the government's response to the Covid-19 pandemic, delivering more than 22 million jabs in the past 12 months. Besides delivering millions of jabs, latest figures from NHS England and NHS Improvement (NHSE&I) revealed a 50 per cent increase in the number of pharmacies delivering Covid boosters compared from October 2021 to January 2022. NHSE&I released the data on Friday (January 14) to thank community pharmacy teams for their work during the crisis time. Lauding the efforts made by community pharmacy teams during the pandemic, Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) director of NHS Services Alastair Buxton said: "Just over a year ago we were fighting for Government recognition of the part community pharmacy could play in administering Covid vaccines, so a year later it is great to see the efforts of the pharmacy vaccination sites being praised by NHSE&I, with recognition of the significant role they have played in the overall programme.

The National Health Service will begin its autumn Covid vaccine program next week, a month earlier than planned in response to the spread of a new variant dubbed Pirola. Covid vaccines will be administered to care home residents and housebound individuals from Monday onwards, while over-65s and other vulnerable groups will receive their appointments the week after. On Aug. 30, NHS England shifted the autumn vaccination drive to start on September 11 in response to the new Covid-19 variant, BA.2.86, detected on August 18. The primary groups can book through a national system upon receiving an invitation from the NHS. Some people may get an earlier call from their GP, and a few have already scheduled Covid vaccinations alongside their flu jabs. The NHS will begin inviting other eligible groups from Sept. 18. However, it is important to note that not everyone will receive a call at the same time. These groups will include individuals aged 65 and over, those aged six months to 64 years in a clinical risk category, frontline health and social care workers, and individuals aged 12 to 64 who are carers or household contacts of those with immunosuppression.

Britain has started counting possible Covid-19 reinfections in its daily coronavirus data, changing its approach to reflect the increased number of people catching the disease for a second time as the Omicron variant predominates. The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) added around 840,000 cases to the cumulative total, taking it to 17.3 million coronavirus infections reported. Britain's daily Covid statistics previously would only count people who had tested positive for the first time to avoid double-counting people who had received multiple positive test results for the same infection. However, with variants such as Omicron leading to an increase in reinfections, the UKHSA said it would change its method to treat positive tests as separate infections if there was at least 90 days between test results. The change took effect on Monday (January 31). "Reinfection remained at very low levels until the start of the Omicron wave. It is right that our daily reporting processes reflect how the virus has changed," said Steven Riley, UKHSA's Director General of Data and Analytics.

Pfizer's oral Covid-19 therapy will be evaluated as a potential treatment for patients hospitalised with the illness in a major British trial, scientists said on Monday, as cases rise in some parts of the world. The world's largest randomised study of potential medicines for Covid-19, dubbed the RECOVERY trial, will assess Paxlovid across hospitals in Britain, which has already approved the drug for early-stage treatment. "Paxlovid is a promising oral antiviral drug but we don't know if it can improve survival of patients with severe Covid-19," said Peter Horby, a professor at the University of Oxford and joint chief investigator of the RECOVERY trial. The scientists said they aim to mainly find whether Pfizer's Paxlovid reduces the risk of death among patients admitted to hospitals with Covid-19.

Prime minister Boris Johnson has said he is cautious about rising cases of Covid in Europe, warning of gathering "storm clouds" of a new wave of coronavirus infections. He made the statement during a visit today (November 12) to a vaccination centre at a community pharmacy in Sidcup, London while encouraging people to come forward for Covid-19 boosters. The UK has had much higher rates of Covid-19 than the rest of Western Europe since the summer when Johnson scrapped coronavirus restrictions in England. However, rates in Britain are now coming down just as they are rising sharply in countries such as Germany, Austria and the Netherlands. Parts of Eastern Europe have also seen a sharp rise in cases.

It is not sustainable to give Covid-19 booster shots every three to six in the long term, Britain's chief scientific adviser said on Tuesday (January 4), even though the booster rollout is needed in the short term to combat the Omicron variant. "It would be a situation that isn't tenable to say everyone's going to need to be having another vaccine every three or six months. "That's not the long-term view of where this goes to," Patrick Vallance said at a news conference, adding that annual booster shots against Covid-19 might be necessary, similar to flu shots.

Researchers from the University of Oxford today (December 8) started recruiting for a clinical trial to test novel antiviral Covid-19 treatments for early use in the illness by people in the community and those who are at higher risk of complications. Partnering with the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), colleagues in several UK universities, and the NHS UK-wide, the Platform Adaptive trial of NOvel antiviRals for eArly treatMent of Covid-19 In the Community (PANORAMIC), is a national priority trial, and will be open to participants from across the UK. The first treatment to be tested by the UK Antiviral Taskforce will be molnupiravir, a Covid antiviral pill already licensed by the MHRA. Britain became the first country in the world to approve molnupiravir, which was jointly developed by U.S.-based Merck & Co Inc and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, in November.

An alliance of companies has pledged to ensure equitable access to vaccines and treatments for pandemics, as the friction around intellectual property rights for Covid-19 interventions between the pharmaceutical industry and developing nations endures. At the heart of the plan is a commitment to set aside part of the production of vaccines and treatments upfront for vulnerable populations in low-income countries when the next pandemic arises, given how fragmented access to Covid tools has left many populations unprotected. In order to do better next time - and without knowing which companies will develop the first drugs and vaccines for the next pandemic - having the industry collectively make this commitment is potentially transformative, said Thomas Cueni, head of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers & Associations (IFPMA). The pledge, called the Berlin Declaration, was made on July 19 by members of the global pharmaceutical industry group that include many of the companies involved in developing Covid interventions, such as AstraZeneca, GSK, Moderna, Pfizer and Merck. The declaration is not legally binding. However, if a company that signed on reneges on its vow, it would face grave consequences in the court of public opinion, said Cueni.

The world has never been in a better position to end the Covid-19 pandemic, the head of the World Health Organization said on September 14, his most optimistic outlook yet on the years-long health crisis which has killed over six million people. "We are not there yet. But the end is in sight," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters at a virtual press conference. That was the most upbeat assessment from the UN agency since it declared an international emergency in January 2020 and started describing Covid-19 as a pandemic three months later. The virus, which emerged in China in late 2019, has killed nearly 6.5 million people and infected 606 million, roiling global economies and overwhelming healthcare systems. The rollout of vaccines and therapies have helped to stem deaths and hospitalisations, and the Omicron variant which emerged late last year causes less severe disease. Deaths from Covid-19 last week were the lowest since March 2020, the U.N. agency reported.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has approved a second "bivalent" vaccine as a Covid-19 booster. The updated booster vaccine made by Pfizer/BioNTech, targeting two coronavirus variants, has been approved for use in individuals aged 12 years and above. In each dose of the booster vaccine, 'Comirnaty bivalent Original/Omicron', half of the vaccine (15 micrograms) targets the original virus strain and the other half (15 micrograms) targets Omicron (BA.1). Dr June Raine, MHRA chief executive said: "I am pleased to announce that we now have a second approved vaccine for the UK Autumn booster programme. The clinical trial of the Pfizer/BioNTech bivalent vaccine showed a strong immune response against the Omicron BA.1 variant as well as the original strain. Bivalent vaccines are helping us to meet the challenge of an ever-evolving virus, to help protect people against Covid-19 variants. We have in place a comprehensive safety surveillance strategy for all UK-approved Covid-19 vaccines, and this will include the updated booster we approved today."