Heena Sharma Blog

  Amid the global shortage of the Covid-19 vaccines , a study conducted by Oxford University has found out that alternating doses of the AstraZeneca and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines generate robust immune responses against the coronavirus. According to the study, 'mixed' schedules of these vaccines induced high concentrations of antibodies against the SARS-CoV2 spike IgG protein when doses were administered four weeks apart. This study, published on the Lancet pre-print server, means all possible vaccination schedules involving the Oxford-AstraZeneca and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines could potentially be used against Covid-19. "The Com-COV study has evaluated 'mix and match' combinations of the Oxford and Pfizer vaccines to see to what extent these vaccines can be used interchangeably, potentially allowing flexibility in the UK and global vaccine roll-out," said Professor Matthew Snape, Associate Professor in Paediatrics and Vaccinology at the University of Oxf...

  AstraZeneca Plc’s Covid-19 vaccine manufacturing partner in Southeast Asia has missed a delivery target in Thailand and shipments to other countries in the region have been delayed, the latest setback for a shot that was meant to be the backbone of the global inoculation effort. Thailand was slated to receive and administer 6 million AstraZeneca vaccine doses in June but health authorities this week said they would be distributing only about 3.5 million of those shots this month. Pledging to still give out 6 million doses as planned, officials appear to be making up the shortfall with millions of shots from China’s Sinovac Biotech Ltd. Shipments of shots made by Siam Bioscience -- AstraZeneca’s Bangkok-based partner, which has links to the Thai royal family -- to Malaysia and the Philippines have also been delayed, though both countries say they don’t expect to be waiting for too long. The situation comes on top of delivery problems at India’s Serum Institute of India Ltd...

  In a much-awaited move, India has allowed Covid vaccination for all above 18 years of age, starting May 1. The decision, taken at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday, is expected to change the course of the pandemic currently raging through the country. India Inc and political parties have for long demanded the opening up of vaccination for all adults. In a departure from the current policy, the government has also allowed states to procure additional vaccine doses directly from the manufacturers. Vaccine supply to open market and industries has been permitted as well with conditions. In fact, the government will allow the imported ready-to-use vaccines to be entirely utilised in the open market. While the pricing arrangements have not been revealed, the latest announcement clubbed with the recent proposal to fast-track clearances could attract a host of foreign vaccine-makers, according to officials. Vaccination would continue free of cost in governm...

  Shipments of the coronavirus vaccine from the Serum Institute to Canada have been put on hold for an indefinite period as India has temporarily stopped vaccine exports so as to cater to domestic needs. According to Sputnik, New Delhi is concentrating on immunization at home due to a spike in domestic cases. "We are working with the company on determining when the doses will arrive. We are expecting a delay in the shipment," Joelle Paquette, Director General, of Procurement Support Services Sector, told reporters on Thursday. "We do not have the information [about] when we're going to get the doses," she further added. Paquette, however, noted Canada received assurances from the Serum Institute that they are committed to meeting their contractual obligations. As per the terms of a contract signed in February, Canada is set to receive an additional 1.5 million vaccine doses from the company by mid-May, in addition to the 500,000 doses received last month...

  AstraZeneca has delivered 29.8 million doses of its Covid-19 vaccine to European Union (EU) member states in the first quarter (Q1) of 2021, just "a few doses away" from the promised 30 million, a European Commission spokesperson said. EU member states have received 67.5 million doses from BioNTech-Pfizer and 9.8 million doses from Moderna, Xinhua news agency quoted European Commission deputy chief spokesperson Dana Spinant as saying on Wednesday. These numbers are in line with those announced by European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen on March 25, with 30 million doses promised by AstraZeneca, 60 million doses by BioNTech-Pfizer, and 10 million doses by Moderna. AstraZeneca's performance comes as a surprise after delays in production and deliveries from the British-Swedish vaccine manufacturer, which triggered vaccine export control by the EU. The company's vaccine is also under scrutiny as a few cases of blood clots subsequent to their vaccine...

  Results from a US trial of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine may have used "outdated information," US federal health officials said in a statement early Tuesday. Late Monday, the Data and Safety Monitoring Board said in a statement that it was concerned that AstraZeneca may have provided an incomplete view of the efficacy data. Late Monday, the Data and Safety Monitoring Board said in a statement that it was concerned that AstraZeneca the included outdated information from that trial may have provided an incomplete view of the efficacy data. AstraZeneca reported Monday that its COVID-19 vaccine provided strong protection among adults of all ages in a long-anticipated U.S. study, a finding that could help rebuild public confidence in the shot around the world and move it a step closer to clearance in the U.S. In the study of 30,000 people, the vaccine was 79% effective at preventing symptomatic cases of COVID-19 including in older adults. Read More

  Following a sluggish start, India’s Covid-19 vaccination drive -- one of the world’s biggest -- has jumped nearly four-fold after the country opened it up to more people and got a crucial public endorsement from the inoculation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Almost 21 million shots have been administered in India so far, up from 5.4 million a month ago, according to data compiled as of Sunday by Bloomberg and Johns Hopkins University. The number of doses per 100 people has also climbed to 1.56 from 0.41. A record 1.6 million Indians received a Covid-19 vaccine on Saturday, data show. After an initially lukewarm response -- due in part to the controversial approval of a homegrown vaccine before it had completed clinical trials -- the vaccination drive gained some momentum after Modi took the injection on March 1 and urged others to follow suit. India also opened the rollout to all citizens above 60 years of age and those 45 and older with co-morbidities, either for free fro...

  The Pfizer and Oxford- AstraZeneca vaccines for COVID-19 are highly effective in reducing severe coronavirus infection among people aged 70 years and above, according to a study. The research, posted as a pre-print and yet to be peer-reviewed, estimated the effect of both the COVID-19 vaccines on laboratory confirmed symptomatic disease in individuals aged 70 years or older in England. The researchers, including those from Public Health England (PHE), compared the rate of hospitalisation and deaths in confirmed COVID-19 patients aged over 80 who were vaccinated more than 14 days before testing positive, with unvaccinated cases. Data suggests that in the over 80s, a single dose of either vaccine is more than 80 per cent effective at preventing hospitalisation, around 3 to 4 weeks after the jab, PHE said in a statement. Evidence for the Pfizer vaccine suggests that it leads to 83 per cent reduction in deaths from COVID-19, it said. Read More

  The second phase of India’s Covid-19 vaccination started on Monday and the Co-WIN portal also started a self-registration process for the 270 million people eligible for these shots. Under this phase, people above 60 years of age – and those over 45 years of age and with co-morbidities – are to be inoculated. The registration portal could be accessed at https://selfregistration.cowin.gov.in/ . The government has issued a list of 20 specified co-morbidities to determine the eligibility of people who can be administered a vaccine shot on priority. If someone is more than 45 years old and suffers from conditions like diabetes or has suffered a heart attack in the past year, they will be eligible to get a Covid-19 vaccine shot. Here’s the full list of specified co-morbidities: 1. Heart failure with hospital admission in the past one year. 2. Post cardiac transplant/ Left Ventricular Assist Device (LVAD). 3. Significant left ventricular systolic dysfunction (LVEF < 40%)....

  The World Health Organisation has granted an emergency authorization to AstraZeneca's coronavirus vaccine , a move that should allow the UN agency's partners to ship millions of doses to countries as part of a UN-backed programme to tame the pandemic. In a statement Monday, the WHO said it was clearing the AstraZeneca vaccines made by the Serum Institute of India and South Korea's AstraZeneca-SKBio. The WHO's green light for the AstraZeneca vaccine is only the second one the U. N. health agency has issued after authorizing the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in December. Monday's announcement should trigger the delivery of hundreds of millions of doses to countries that have signed up for the UN-backed COVAX effort, which aims to deliver vaccines to the world's most vulnerable people. Countries with no access to vaccines to date will finally be able to start vaccinating their health workers and populations at risk, said Dr. Mariangela Simao, the WHO's Assi...

  Australia's regulator on Tuesday approved the AstraZeneca vaccine as its second for use against COVID-19 . Pfizer's product will be available in Australia next week. It will be given in two doses three weeks apart, while AstraZeneca's will be administered in two doses 12 weeks apart. Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the Therapeutic Goods Administration, the regulator, found the AstraZeneca vaccine was safe and effective. Health Minister Greg Hunt said the AstraZeneca vaccine will prevent serious COVID-19 illness. Morrison will be vaccinated with the Pfizer product and Hunt with AstraZeneca in a demonstration of confidence in both vaccines. Australia has contracted 53.8 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, and 50 million of those will be manufactured in Australia. The government has also secured 20 million Pfizer vaccines for a population of 26 million. Read More

  Iran will start receiving doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine in February via the Covid-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX) platform, Minister of Health and Medical Education Saeed Namaki announced. "AstraZeneca informed us the night before last that it will start delivering 4.2 million doses in February within the framework of COVAX," Namaki said in a video announcement on Wednesday. Namaki also said that Iran's Razi Vaccine and Serum Research Institute has been authorised to start clinical trials of its vaccine candidate, and they will hopefully start the trials next week. At her daily briefing, spokeswoman for the ministry, Sima Sadat Lari, said 6,870 new Covid-19 cases were detected in the past 24 hours, raising the country's overall count to 1,438,286 infections. Of the newly infected, she noted, 701 had to be hospitalised. Read More

  Results of an interim analysis of the Phase III programme conducted by Oxford University with AZD1222, peer-reviewed and published in The Lancet on Wednesday demonstrated that the vaccine is safe and effective at preventing symptomatic COVID-19 and that it protects against severe disease and hospitalisation. The interim analysis for efficacy was based on 11,636 participants accruing 131 symptomatic infections from the Phase III UK and Brazil trials conducted by Oxford University. As announced on November 23, the primary efficacy endpoint of the programme statistical plan, based on the pooling of two dosing regimens, showed that the vaccine is 70.4 per cent effective at preventing symptomatic COVID-19 occurring more than 14 days after receiving two doses of the vaccine. A secondary efficacy endpoint of prevention of severe disease demonstrated no cases of severe infections or hospitalisations in the vaccine group. Read More        

  AstraZeneca Plc and the University of Oxford face mounting questions about their Covid-19 vaccine trial results after acknowledging a manufacturing error. While an announcement earlier this week by Astra and Oxford showed their shot was 70 per cent effective on average in a late-stage study, the scant details released by the UK partners have sparked worries, with some expressing doubts about whether US regulators would clear it. Astra and Oxford had said their vaccine was 90 per cent effective when a half-dose was given before a full-dose booster. Two full doses showed an efficacy of 62 per cent. But the head of the US vaccine program known as Operation Warp Speed said the next day that the dose showing the higher level of effectiveness was tested in a younger population. Read More

  AstraZeneca says late-stage trials of its COVID-19 vaccine were highly effective'' in preventing disease. A vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford prevented 70% of people from developing the coronavirus in late-stage trials, the team reported Monday. Key researcher Dr. Andrew Pollard said scientists were pleased with the results. He said researchers found that if people were given a half dose followed by a full dose, rather than two full doses, protection rose to about 90%. These findings show that we have an effective vaccine that will save many lives," he said. Two other drugmakers, Pfizer and Moderna, last week reported preliminary results from late-stage trials showing that their COVID-19 vaccines were almost 95% effective. Read More

  Even as several countries were planning to roll out coronavirus vaccines as early as in December or January, doses of these vaccine were unlikely to available before early- or mid-2021, World Health Organization (WHO) Southeast Asia Regional Director Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh told Business Standard. “It is hoped that if a successful vaccine is found within the next few months, enough doses will be available for countries by the end of 2021 so that those in priority populations who choose to be vaccinated have access to them,” Singh said. Even the front-runners among vaccine companies would take at least a few months to complete Phase-III trials and evaluate the efficacy and safety of individual vaccines, she said. Add to this the time taken for licensure, authorisation for use and mass production after the trials have been completed. Read More

  Coronavirus Update : The Maharashtra government has asked the authorities to ensure there is no complacency in testing and said labs should be functional in every district and municipal corporation limits. A circular from the government's health services directorate dated November 11 said a second wave of the pandemic is likely in January-February based on what is happening in Europe. If we talk of the national capital, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has pointed at pollution as a reason for the spike and hoped to control its spread in the next 7-10 days. The number of Covid-19 deaths in Delhi rose by a record high on Thursday to 104 as the city also reported the greatest number of infections (7,053) in India. Read More

  India has recorded over 64,000 Covid positive cases since yesterday. Statewise, Maharashtra (615,477) has the highest number of cases, followed by Tamil Nadu (349,654), Andhra Pradesh (300,000), Karnataka (240,948), and Uttar Pradesh (162,434). A bit more about Maharashtra, the state now has more than 600,000 confirmed coronavirus cases . This is almost equivalent to the case tally of the next two worst-affected states – Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh – put together. Its latest block of 100,000 cases have taken just nine days, the shortest time taken for a set of 100,000 cases. Read More                 India has recorded over 64,000 Covid positive cases since yesterday. Statewise, Maharashtra (615,477) has the highest number of cases, followed by Tamil Nadu (349,654), Andhra Pradesh (300,000), Karnataka (240,948), and Uttar Pradesh (162,434). A bit more about Maharashtra, the state now has more than 600,000 confirmed coronavirus cases...

French drugmaker Sanofi SA said on Tuesday it expects to get approval for the potential Covid-19 vaccine it is developing with Britain's GlaxoSmithKline Plc by the first half of next year, faster than previously anticipated. Sanofi, which is hosting a virtual research and development event, and GSK had said in April the vaccine, if successful, would be available in the second half of 2021. "We are being guided by our dialogue with regulatory authorities," Sanofi research chief John Reed told reporters, when asked about the accelerated time frame. Read More