If you look at the human clinical trials that have been conducted this year by drug companies developing experimental vaccines for COVID-19, the participants in those trials have all been “healthy adults.” Take, for example, Moderna’s Phase 1 clinical trial for its mRNA-1273 vaccine, which included 45 healthy adults 18 to 55 years old. The same […]
I wasn’t pleased with what seemed to be some selective disclosure, if that was, in fact, the case. I was not on the call. I do own AstraZeneca in the fund for reasons unrelated to the COVID-19 vaccine. Ironically, it relates to their current drugs in their pipeline. But one never wants to see selective […]
News update, Sept. 15, 2020—U.S. regulators paused AstraZeneca’s vaccine trial in the U.S. while the National Institutes of Health (NIH) launches an investigation of its own into a serious side effect in an unnamed patient in Britain. “The highest levels of NIH are very concerned,” said Dr. Avindra Nath, intramural clinical director and a leader […]
The government of Canada has signed deals to purchase COVID-19 vaccines from four pharmaceutical companies when their vaccines are approved to be given to the public. According to Canada’s Minister of Public Services and Procurement Anita Anand, the Canadian government has contracts with Janssen Pharmaceuticals (a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson), Moderna, Novavax and Pfizer […]
Vaccines Europe, a pharmaceutical industry lobbying group, has issued a memo to its member companies saying it would seek liability protection from the European Union (EU) for corporations manufacturing COVID-19 vaccines. The memo, obtained by the Financial Times, expressed concern about the “inevitable risks” of rushing the development and global marketing of COVID-19 vaccines.1 2 3 […]
Opinion | Scurvy, we all know, is a disease caused by a vitamin C deficiency. It took almost 200 years from the time a “lemon juice” cure for scurvy was discovered until it was promoted by the British government. Some think the mental biases that caused the needless deaths of millions have been eliminated in […]
Story Highlights Most countries that have supply contracts with AstraZeneca have granted the drug company liability protection for their COVID-19 vaccine. In the U.S., vaccine manufacturers and administrators are shielded from liability under the PREP Act of 2005 for a vaccine or drug that is developed in response to a declared public health emergency, including […]
When Moderna, Inc. announced on May 18, 2020 the results of a Phase 1 human clinical trial for its experimental mRNA-1273 vaccine for COVID-19, the biotechnology company said the vaccine had produced no “serious adverse events” (SAEs) among the 45 people who participated in the trial and that it considered the vaccine to be “generally […]
The first generation of COVID-19 vaccines may not prevent people from becoming infected with or transmitting SARS-CoV-2 virus (COVID-19). According to Anthony Fauci, MD, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and other infectious disease experts, the best that COVID-19 vaccines may do is prevent people becoming severely ill and […]
The University of Oxford’s Jenner Institute and Oxford Vaccine Group in the United Kingdom has announced that its researchers have begun recruiting children aged five to 12 years for phase II and phase III clinical trials testing an experimental COVID-19 vaccine the university is developing in partnership with AstraZeneca plc.1 Oxford’s ChAdOx1 nCov-19 (“chimpanzee adenovirus […]