“You may choose to look the other way, but you can never say again that you did not know.”
— William Wilberforce
Biopharmaceutical company CureVac NV of Tübingen, Germany has released the interim results of its Phase 1 clinical trial on its experimental CVnCoV vaccine COVID-19. The vaccine, which was given to more than 250 healthy adults 18 to 60 years of age, is based on messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) technology.1 2 Unlike traditional vaccines, mRNA vaccines […]
On Sept. 8, 2020, nine pharmaceutical companies working on COVID-19 vaccines signed a pledge saying they would not submit their experimental vaccines to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) unless they were shown to be both safe and efficacious in the Phase 3 human clinical trials.1 2 3 4 5 The pledge, signed by […]
Biotechnology firm Moderna, Inc. of Cambridge, Massachusetts began a Phase 3 human clinical trial to test the safety and efficacy of its experimental mRNA-1273 COVID-19 vaccine on July 27, 2020. The randomized, placebo-controlled trial involves giving two 100-microgram doses of the vaccine to 28,618 volunteer participants over 18 years of age, including some elderly people […]
On Oct. 14, 2020, Pfizer, Inc. of New York City, New York announced it had received approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to enroll children in the Phase 3 human clinical trial on its experimental messenger RNA (ribonucleic acid) BNT162b1 vaccine for COVID-19. The trial, which last month was expanded to include adolescent […]
On Sept. 23, 2020, U.S. pharmaceutical and medical devices company Johnson & Johnson, Inc. announced the start of the Phase 3 human clinical trial for its experimental Ad26.COV2.S vaccine for COVID-19. The New Jersey-based company, which is partnering with its subsidiary Janssen Pharmaceutica NV of Belgium on development of the vaccine, is planning to enroll […]
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 […]
A 12-month-old baby girl died on Sept. 15, 2020 in Dong Nai, Vietnam hours after receiving a second dose of the Japanese Encephalitis (JE) vaccine at the Hiep Phuoc medical clinic. The child had received a first dose of the vaccine on July 7, 2020.1 2 3 The child became ill shortly after she was […]
Biotechnology company Novavax, Inc. of Gaithersburg, Maryland recently made public the results of the Phase 1 part of a Phase 1/2 human clinical trial for its experimental NVX-CoV2373 vaccine for COVID-19. According to Novavax, “NVX‑CoV2373 was created using Novavax’s recombinant nanoparticle technology to generate antigen derived from the coronavirus spike (S) protein and contains Novavax’s […]
An 11-year-old girl died on Aug. 30, 2020 after receiving an HPV (human papillomavirus infection) vaccine for cervical cancer at her school in Maha Rat, Thailand. It is unclear how much time elapsed between the time the girl was vaccinated and her death. It is also not clear if the death was caused by the […]
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 […]