AstraZeneca plc

AstraZeneca (LON:AZN) is looking for final year MD or PhD students and postdoctoral researchers to reach out with ideas to speed drug discovery and development in the company’s core disease areas. The company’s central focus areas include oncology; cardiovascular, renal and metabolism; and respiratory and immunology. Candidates accepted into the program have a fully funded…

A handful of companies are making billions of dollars in revenues from COVID-19 vaccines. Especially well-positioned is Pfizer, which could earn $33.5 billion in COVID-19 vaccine sales this year, as it announced in its Q2 earnings statement. By contrast, J&J has forecasted $2.5 billion in COVID-19 vaccine sales this year, while AstraZeneca has seen sales of…

AstraZeneca (LON:AZN) and the European Union have agreed to end litigation related to the supply of its COVID-19 vaccine Vaxzevria (ChAdOx1-S). AstraZeneca had initially contracted with the European Commission to provide 300 million doses of its vaccine with an option for another 100 million, but fell short of its commitment. The level of vaccine doses,…

Novavax (NSDQ:NVAX) saw its stock jump more than 20% in afternoon trading after the European Commission agreed to purchase up to 200 million doses of its vaccine.  The Gaithersburg, Md.–based vaccine maker announced in March that its NVX-CoV2373 vaccine was 96.4% effective against the original SARS-CoV-2 strain in a U.K. trial. The efficacy in a later trial…

A recent Canadian pre-print study found that AstraZeneca’s Vaxzevria vaccine was 82% effective in preventing hospitalization or death from the Beta and Gamma SARS-CoV-2 virus variants. Using the same benchmark, its efficacy against the Alpha and Delta variants was 87% and 90%, respectively, 21 days after administering the first dose. The BNT162b2 vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech…

Several countries have embraced the idea of using distinct COVID-19 vaccines for the first and second doses. But a death in Korea is fueling concerns about the strategy, and some public authorities have warned against the practice. Canada, Korea, Thailand and Germany have authorized the use of a heterologous prime-boost COVID-19 vaccination strategy to manage…

Santa Clara, Calif.–based NVIDIA has launched the Cambridge-1, which it hails as “the United Kingdom’s most powerful supercomputer.” Developed with healthcare applications in mind, NVIDIA invested some $100 million in the supercomputer. Initial applications of the Cambridge-1 include using AI to improve drug development, explore the causes of dementia and identify genomic-based disease risk factors.…

British researchers report that using distinct COVID-19 vaccine types for the first and second doses appears to be effective, according to a preprint study in The Lancet. As global health authorities seek to vaccinate as many people as possible, a potential hurdle is the need to use identical vaccines for the prime and boost stages. Using…

As the U.S. sees demand plateauing for COVID-19 vaccines, Australia is facing a shortage of both vaccine supplies and healthcare workers. Australian health officials project that the nation’s vaccination program will face delays from June to July. The slowdown is partly a result of limited shipments of the Pfizer vaccine. Australia expects to receive 1.7…

The COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) and BioNTech (NSDQ:BNTX) appears to be on the cusp of winning regulatory authorization for use in adolescents between the ages of 12 and 15, according to several media reports. FDA has authorized the vaccine for people aged 16 and up. In March, Pfizer submitted clinical trial results to FDA, suggesting the efficacy of the…

A recent study found that only 13.5% of recipients of the COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) and BioNTech (NSDQ:BNTX) had systemic side effects after the first dose. That figure climbed to 22.0% after the second dose. Conversely, just over one-third (33.7%) of recipients of the first dose of vaccine from AstraZeneca (LON:AZN) had systemic side effects, according to the…

One dose of vaccine from Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) or AstraZeneca (LON:AZN) leads to a substantial reduction in infection risk in adults, according to a recent study published in BMJ.  The study organizers found that recipients of a single dose of either vaccine led to a 57% reduction in asymptomatic infections and a 74% drop in symptomatic disease at least…

After the European Medicines Agency determined that the benefits of Johnson & Johnson’s (NYSE:JNJ) COVID-19 vaccine outweigh its risks, the company announced that it would unfreeze its European vaccinate rollout. But assessing demand for the J&J and AstraZeneca vaccines remains difficult. The possible link to rare blood clots could elevate the role of vaccines from…

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) privately contacted other COVID-19 vaccine makers last week to gauge their interest in studying blood clot risks, according to a Wall Street Journal report. Specifically, the company asked whether its rivals — AstraZeneca, Moderna and Pfizer— had new information about blood clots following vaccination and if they were interested in forming an external panel…

Regulatory authorities in the U.S. and Europe have either paused or constrained the use of COVID-19 vaccines from AstraZeneca (LON:AZN) and Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ), causing some to wonder why the adenoviral-vector vaccines have been potentially linked to similar blood clotting events. Researchers have observed blood clotting events associated with adenoviral vectors since the late-1990s…

The public may require annual vaccines to protect against SARS-CoV-2, Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) CEO Albert Bourla said today.  “It is extremely important to suppress the pool of people that can be susceptible to the virus,” Bourla said in a CNBC interview.  While the details of Pfizer-BioNTech boosters are not yet clear, COVID-19 boosters will likely be based…

With COVID-19 cases surging in many parts of the world, the need is high for multiple vaccines to slow the virus. But the fate of adenovirus-vectored vaccines from AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson has become murky after a limited number of people receiving those vaccines have developed severe blood clot disorders. Officials in both the…

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) announced that it is beginning a review of blood clots appearing in a handful of recipients of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine.  EMA recently concluded that blood clots associated with low blood platelet levels were a “very rare” side effect of Vaxzevria, the vaccine from AstraZeneca.  Four recipients of…

European Medicines Agency (EMA) official Marco Cavaleri said there was a link between AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine and rare reports of blood clots, including pulmonary embolism, deep vein thrombosis and thrombocytopenia, according to a Reuters report. Two separate research groups in Europe had reached similar conclusions regarding the blood clots in March. AstraZeneca had previously downplayed the possibility that…

Two separate teams of scientists in Germany and Norway concluded that the AstraZeneca vaccine could cause an autoimmune reaction, which in turn causes thrombosis in a small number of patients. The problem could be treated using a  blood thinner and immunoglobulin, the German research team determined. The Norwegian researchers claim to have identified an antibody…

Although no causal link has been found between blood clots and the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, several European nations have decided to suspend its use out of an abundance of caution. Germany, France, Italy, and Spain recently halted the use of the vaccine following reports of blood clots in vaccinated people’s brains. There have been 37…

A handful of patients in Johnson & Johnson’s Phase 3 COVID-19 clinical trial complained of tinnitus, or ringing in the ears. After reporting on the subject, we’ve received a steady stream of reports from Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine recipients who experienced tinnitus. The U.S. Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) database cites 152 reports of…

Health Canada today authorized the COVID-19 vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University — the third vaccine for the novel coronavirus authorized in Canada. “This is very encouraging news. It means more people vaccinated, and sooner. Because for AstraZeneca, just like we were for Pfizer and Moderna, we are ready to get doses rolling,” said…

Portugal health authorities recently recommended that AstraZeneca’s (LON:AZN) COVID-19 vaccine not be used for those who are over 65. South Africa recently paused its deployment of the vaccine over worries that it is ineffective against a variant circulating there.   In addition to Portugal, several European countries have expressed reservations about the vaccine’s efficacy in…

South Africa has scrapped its plans to vaccinate a portion of its population with the COVID-19 vaccine from Oxford University and AstraZeneca (LON:AZN) after a small study showed it was ineffective against a variant widely circulating there. In the interim, South Africa will rely on vaccines from Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) and Pfizer (NYSE:PFE). Researchers at Oxford University…