Healthwise: March 2021

Monday, 29 March 2021

Novavax jabs to be made in Britain after Brussels snubbed

BORIS JOHNSON has confirmed 60 million doses of the Novavax coronavirus vaccine will be bottled in the UK - just days after the drugs company delayed signing a contract to supply jabs to the EU.

By DAN FALVEY, POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT

PUBLISHED: 17:10, Mon, Mar 29, 2021 | UPDATED: 18:28, Mon, Mar 29, 2021

Boris Johnson has confirmed the Novavax jab will be manufactured in the UK

Boris Johnson has confirmed the Novavax jab will be manufactured in the UK (Image: PA)

The Prime Minister confirmed an agreement with British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) would see doses of the coronavirus vaccine manufactured in the north east of England. GSK will provide "fill and finish" manufacturing capacity beginning as early as May.

The time of the announcement - just days after delays to the EU's contract with Novavax became public - is likely to rub salt in the wounds of Brussels, which is struggling to ramp up its own immunisation efforts.

While more than 57 percent of adults in the UK have had a first dose of a Covid jab, the number is much closer to 10 percent across the EU.

Britain secured a deal for 60 million doses of the life-saving Novavax injection last year but it is yet to be approved by the regulator for use.

"Fill and finish" is the completion stage of vaccine manufacturing, preparing vials of the final vaccine and packaging them for distribution and use.

The protein antigen component of NVX-CoV2373, which helps defeat the virus, is also produced in the North East of England by Novavax's manufacturing partner, FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies, at their site in Billingham, Stockton-on-Tees.

The announcement on the jabs comes amid weeks of threats from the EU to ban the export of vaccines from the continent until bloc's slow inoculation programme had caught up with the pace of the UK's immunisation drive.

However, it also comes just days after Novavax delayed talks on signing an agreement to supply doses to Brussels.

At a televised coronavirus briefing this evening, the Prime Minister said: "At the same time as we push forwards with our programme to offer a vaccination to all adults by the end of July we’re building up our own long-term UK manufacturing capabilities.

"I’ve already told you that Novavax – a potentially significant new weapon in our armoury against Covid - is going to be made at Fujifilm in the North East.

"And I can today announce that the Vaccine Task Force has reached an agreement with GlaxoSmithKline to finish and bottle this precious fluid also in the North East giving us between 50 and 60 million doses of UK made vaccine subject to the right approvals from the MHRA."

The Prime Minister confirmed the deal at this evening's coronavirus briefing

The Prime Minister confirmed the deal at this evening's coronavirus briefing (Image: PA)

Novavax is said to be wary of putting pen to paper following the threats made by the EU to AstraZeneca following issues with the manufacturing of the Oxford jab.

"You can’t blame the company for being cautious after seeing the punishment beating given to AstraZeneca over the past few weeks," a source told The Sun last week.

"They are clearly unwilling to line themselves up as the new scapegoats for the EU’s failings.

"There are many more countries who want to do business."

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The EU's contract with Novavax has been delayed

The EU's contract with Novavax has been delayed (Image: PA)

Earlier this month, the company behind the Novavax jab announced it is 86 percent effective against the Kent variant and 96 percent effective in preventing cases caused by the original strain of the coronavirus.

According to results of phase three trial in the UK, the jab offers 100 percent protection against severe disease, including all hospital admission and death.

Following the announcement, Roger Connor, president of GSK vaccines, said: "GSK is delighted to support Novavax and the UK vaccines taskforce with this manufacturing arrangement for the UK and our Barnard Castle facility is now undertaking the rapid preparation work required to manufacture up to 60 million doses of this vaccine.

"We have ensured that we can deliver these volumes without impacting supply of our other vital medicines and vaccines, and without disruption to the other Covid-19 collaborations GSK is engaged in globally."

Boris Johnson said production of 60 million doses would begin in May

Boris Johnson said production of 60 million doses would begin in May (Image: PA)

The UK has already given vaccines to more than 30 million Brits, with all over-50s and clinically vulnerable adults set to have been given a first dose by April 15.

The Government has set itself the target of the end of July for giving a dose of a Covid antidote to all adults.

April is likely to largely see second doses administered due to a drop off in supply of vaccines.

The production of the Novavax jabs in May - if approved for use by the regulator - would help speed up the rollout of the immunisation programme.

Boris Johnson Coronavirus Vaccine

https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1416501/novavax-vaccine-boris-johnson-uk-delivery-covid-jab-eu

29 Mar 21 British taxpayers paid for AstraZeneca vaccine

Stefan Boscia

Monday 29 March 2021 6:02 am

British PM Visits Brussels Ahead Of Brexit Deal Deadline

The UK and EU are set to resume talks from tomorrow over Brussels' threats to block the export of AstraZeneca vaccines manufactured at a Halix plant in the Netherlands. (Getty Images)

The UK will tell the EU next week that it must consider the millions of pounds British taxpayers spent on the creation of the Oxford University/AstraZeneca jab as the two sides look to resolve an ongoing row over vaccine exports.

The UK and EU are set to resume talks from tomorrow over Brussels’ threats to block the export of AstraZeneca vaccines manufactured at a Halix plant in the Netherlands.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has publicly threatened to block shipments of vaccines from the plant destined for the UK, unless the company gives more units of the jab to EU countries.

AstraZeneca has fallen behind on its scheduled delivery of vaccines to the EU, with the pharma giant blaming production and supply chain issues for the delays.

The UK government made orders of the vaccine, created in Britain, earlier and on a larger scale than the EU, meaning that units manufactured in the bloc are being sent to the UK.

Von der Leyen has called for “reciprocity”, after 21m vaccine units have been sent from EU plants to the UK with none coming the other way.

The Sunday Telegraph reports that British officials will tell the EU in negotiations that it was £84m of UK government funding that helped create the jab and that without this cash no vaccine would exist.

Read more: Government to offer free home Covid tests for businesses in back to work push

The UK will push for overall investment into vaccines to be counted into the EU’s calculations during negotiations next week, with Boris Johnson’s government spending more than £6bn to develop and procure vaccines.

Culture secretary Oliver Dowden told Sky News today: “Our position is very clear, that the EU should not be engaging in blocking exports and that they should honour the pledge that Ursula Von De Leyen gave to Prime Minister Boris Johnson a short while ago, whereby they agreed that any contracts should be honoured, so that is to say that if vaccines have been provided in honouring of the contracts, that should be honoured by the EU and we expect them to abide by that.”

https://www.cityam.com/uk-to-remind-brussels-that-british-taxpayers-paid-for-astrazeneca-vaccine/

Friday, 26 March 2021

*AstraZeneca lost £21bn in profit by selling Covid vaccine at cost

Astrazeneca sacrificed over £21billion of revenues by selling its Covid vaccine at no profit, it emerged last night.

Matt Oliver For The Daily Mail 26 March 2021

16 hrs ago

Astrazeneca sacrificed over £21billion of revenues by selling its Covid vaccine at no profit, it emerged last night.

The British company has pledged to produce 3billion doses of the life-saving jab it developed with Oxford University for an average price of just $5 (£3.60) globally – the minimum needed to recover costs.

Its decision to forego huge profits is an unprecedented move by a multinational business, prompting the World Health Organisation to hail the jab as a ‘vaccine for the world’.

But critics in the EU have tried to round on the company over supply chain problems and blame it for the bloc’s vaccine rollout. Some have even accused the firm of ‘dishonesty’ and of secretly hoarding jabs.

The attacks are said to have left bosses at Astra dismayed. More than one senior figure is said to have suggested that they wouldn’t make the same decision again.

If profit had been its main goal, Astra could have boosted its bottom line significantly.

The Mail understands that had the firm doubled the price per jab to £7.30, it could have made an extra £11billion in revenues. Tripling it would have netted over £21billion.

John Rountree, a pharmaceuticals expert at Novasecta, said Astrazeneca’s decision was ‘courageous’ but it had been ‘sucked into politics’.

He added: ‘It is not easy to produce vaccines and yet they have managed to do this very fast. Inevitably, it will not all go smoothly all the way but that is normal. And even now when they are getting some bad publicity, they are taking it in their stride and being very professional.’

Sir John Bell, the Oxford professor involved in bringing the vaccine to market, said Astra ‘never had credit’ for its generosity.

‘There’s a point at which AstraZeneca could just say, “You’ve got to be joking, we’re going to stop now because we’re not getting any credit for what we’re doing”,’ he told the Daily Telegraph. ‘The share price has gone down, not up. We’re making more vaccines than everybody else. This is a safe and effective vaccine, but nobody seems to care.’

Rivals have netted huge profits during the pandemic. The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is thought to have cost around £15 per dose and Moderna’s around £28.

Yet EU politicians have made baseless attacks against Astra’s vaccine, which has been key to the UK’s inoculation drive. French president Emmanuel Macron once claimed that it was ‘quasi-ineffective’ on the elderly.

Belgian MEP Philippe Lamberts accused the firm of ‘dishonesty and ‘arrogance’.

Meanwhile in Italy, police were this week sent to raid a factory as part of an attempt to track exports.

And American regulators claimed it had used outdated efficacy data in its figures.

Yesterday a spokesman said: ‘From the outset AstraZeneca’s approach has been to treat the development of the vaccine as a response to a global public health emergency and we continue to operate in that same public spirit.

‘We are absolutely committed to make the vaccine available to as many countries as possible at no profit during the period of the pandemic to support broad and equitable access around the world.’

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/other/astrazeneca-lost-%c2%a321bn-in-profit-by-selling-covid-vaccine-at-cost/

ALSO:

'UK-funded AZ vaccine given to world at COST price'

Thursday, 25 March 2021

AstraZeneca says COVID-19 vaccine 76% effective in new analysis, to seek U.S. approval

(Reuters) - AstraZeneca’s said its COVID-19 vaccine was 76% effective in a new analysis of its U.S. trial - only a tad lower than the level in an earlier report this week criticised for using outdated data.

MARCH 25, 20219:02 AMUPDATED AN HOUR AGO

By Rocky Swift, Swati Pandey

Interim data published on Monday had put the vaccine’s efficacy rate at 79% but had not included more recent infections, leading to a highly unusual public rebuke from U.S health officials.

The small revision to the efficacy rate will go a long way to putting the vaccine back on track for gaining U.S. emergency use authorisation - which it plans to seek in the coming weeks - and help AstraZeneca in its efforts to dispel doubts about its effectiveness and side-effects, independent experts said.

AstraZeneca also reiterated that the shot, developed with Oxford University, was 100% effective against severe or critical forms of the disease. There have been eight severe cases - all among trial participants who received the placebo.

“The vaccine efficacy against severe disease, including death, puts the AZ vaccine in the same ballpark as the other vaccines,” said William Schaffner, an infectious disease expert from the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, adding that he expects the shot to gain U.S. approval.

The latest data was based on 190 infections among more than 32,400 participants in the United States, Chile and Peru. The earlier interim data was based on 141 infections through Feb. 17.

It also said the vaccine showed 85% efficacy in adults 65 years and older, higher than the 80% rate reported on Monday.

AstraZeneca said the latest data has been presented to the independent trial oversight committee, the Data Safety Monitoring Board, and it plans to submit the analysis for peer-reviewed publication in the coming weeks.

“The primary analysis is consistent with our previously released interim analysis, and confirms that our COVID-19 vaccine is highly effective in adults,” Mene Pangalos, executive vice president of BioPharmaceuticals R&D at AstraZeneca said in a statement.

The drugmaker noted there were 14 additional possible or probable cases to be analysed so numbers in later updates of the trial results may fluctuate slightly.

The updated 76% efficacy rate compares with rates of about 95% for vaccines from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna in their trial data.

Experts have noted, however, that AstraZeneca’s latest data is particularly significant because it was compiled after more infectious variants of the coronavirus became prevalent.

“This appears to be a very effective vaccine with no safety concerns,” said Paul Griffin, a professor at the University of Queensland.

“Hopefully, this should now give people the confidence that this vaccine is the right one to continue to use moving forward,” he said, adding that he and his parents have received the vaccine.

AstraZeneca’s vaccine is seen as crucial in tackling the spread of COVID-19 across the globe, not just due to limited supply of vaccines but also because it is easier and cheaper to transport than rival shots. It has been granted conditional marketing or emergency use authorisation in more than 70 countries.

The vaccine, once hailed as a milestone in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, has been dogged by questions since late last year when the drugmaker and Oxford University published data from an earlier trial with two different efficacy readings as a result of a dosing error.

Then this month, more than a dozen countries temporarily suspended giving out the vaccine after reports linked it to a rare blood clotting disorder in a very small number of people.

The European Union’s drug regulator said last week the vaccine was clearly safe, but Europeans remain sceptical about its safety.

Canada on Wednesday said it was safe but added a warning to the vaccine’s label about rare blood clots.

Its rollout has also been marred by production glitches and export curbs imposed by India and the European Union, threatening to slow global efforts to end the pandemic which has killed more than 2.8 million.

Reporting by Rocky Swift in Tokyo, Swati Pandey in Sydney, Peter Henderson in San Francisco and Shubham Kalia in Bengaluru; Writing by Miyoung Kim; Editing by Edwina Gibbs

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-astrazeneca-usa/astrazeneca-says-covid-19-vaccine-76-effective-in-new-analysis-to-seek-u-s-approval

UK announces another fall in Covid cases and deaths

Britain today recorded another 5,605 coronavirus cases and 98 deaths, with both figures down on this time last week.

Sam Blanchard Deputy Health Editor For Mailonline
17 hrs ago

Positive Covid tests fell by 2.7 per cent from the 5,758 infections posted last Wednesday, while fatalities plunged 30.5 per cent from 141.

The positive news was accompanied by a record number of second vaccine doses being dished out by the NHS, with 170,000 people getting their top-up jab yesterday.

Covid cases have yet to spike, despite millions of extra tests being carried out because of schools reopening in England on March 8. If the promising trend continues, it means ministers will remain on track to relax restrictions further on April 12.

Today's good vaccine news is tinged with concern, however, as supply issues loom larger and Europe doubles down on its threat to throttle exports.

Despite anxiety in many member states about undermining legal contracts, vice-president Valdis Dombrovkis complained at a press conference this afternoon that the EU had exported 43million doses to 33 countries since January — including 10million to the UK.

He said exports could be restricted to destination countries that limit their own exports of jabs or raw materials — whether by law or through other means.

In other coronavirus news:

The export controls — backed by France and Germany — were today branded as 'mind-blowingly stupid vaccine nationalism' by Tory MPs.

And health committee chair Jeremy Hunt warned that the EU was being 'idiotic' and 'destroying the possibility of a long-term partnership and friendship with its closest neighbour'.

The measures were also condemned by Bernd Lange, chairman of the European Parliament's international trade committee, who said the bloc had 'brought out the shotgun' but risked 'shooting itself in the foot'.

And asked about the controversial move as he was grilled by the powerful Liaison Committee this evening, Boris Johnson cautioned that there would be 'long term damage' from such a move.

The Prime Minister said the 'partnership' with the EU was 'very important' and he wanted to 'continue to work with them'.

SEVEN IN 10 HOSPITAL PATIENTS STILL HAVE SYMPTOMS 5 MONTHS LATER

Seven in 10 patients hospitalised by coronavirus still suffer debilitating 'long Covid' symptoms five months after being discharged, scientists say.

Research laying bare the toll of the condition revealed survivors were plagued with problems including breathlessness, fatigue and muscle pain.

University of Leicester experts, who quizzed 1,077 long-haulers, found two in five had reduced their workload or were off sick because of their persistent symptoms.

They also found evidence of organ damage in sufferers, and that those who required mechanical ventilation took longer to recover from long Covid.

Separate data from Glasgow University released today further highlighted the plight of long Covid victims, saying women under-50 were worst affected.

Professor Chris Whitty, England's chief medical officer, claimed the studies added to knowledge of long Covid, which is still surrounded in mystery.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said he was 'determined' to improve care for Britons suffering the 'lasting and debilitating' impacts of Covid — which is estimated to have infected around 15million people in the UK.

Estimates suggest long Covid strikes up to one in ten infected people, leaving them battling fatigue and brain fog for months.

NHS England has put aside more than £20million to treat the condition and set up a network of 72 sites across the nation to assist patients complaining of symptoms.

'Vaccines as you know are the product of international cooperation,' the premier said.

'I don't think that blockades either on vaccines or medicines, or ingredient for vaccines are sensible. The long term damage done by blockades can be very considerable.'

He went on: 'I would just gently point out to anybody considering a blockade or an interruption of supply chains, that companies may look at such actions and draw conclusions about whether or not it is sensible to make future investment in countries where arbitrary blockades are imposed.'

The row came amid extraordinary reports today that 29million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine are being held at a plant in Italy after a raid by police.

Initially, briefings to European papers including La Stampa suggested the huge stocks were earmarked for the UK, but discovered by the authorities after a tip-off from Brussels.

However, AstraZeneca later insisted that none of the supplies are for Britain, and government sources said the reports were 'not true'.

Sixteen million of the doses are due to be delivered to the European, while 13million are due to be delivered to developing countries, Astrazeneca said.

Meanwhile, in a major boost for the British drive the Serum Institute in India has indicated it could hand over another five million AstraZeneca doses that had been delayed and urged the India government to release the doses for export.

The wrangling comes amid mounting panic in Brussels at its shambolic rollout, with French officials swiping that Europe must not be a 'useful idiot' in the battle against the virus.

The EU is trying to maximise leverage on AstraZeneca to a bigger share of supplies, even though the UK has a stronger contractual position as it funded the initial development.

In a sign of the chaos, hundreds of people from the Republic are said to have been trying to book jabs in Northern Ireland, where availability is far better.

Mr Johnson risked fuelling the row last night by suggesting to Tory MPs that 'greed' was responsible for the UK being so far ahead - although he quickly tried to retract the comment, realising it might cause anger.

The UK currently gets the bulk of its vaccine supply from two AstraZeneca plants in England that produce approximately two million doses a week.

Ministers say that the country has enough doses on stream to cover second doses.

However, there have been hopes of additional doses from an Astrazeneca plant in the Netherlands, while Pfizer doses are imported from Belgium.

Both could be affected by an EU export ban, with some estimates suggesting a ban could delay Britain's vaccine drive by two months and affect supply by 20 per cent.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/health/medical/uk-announces-another-fall-in-covid-cases-and-deaths/ar-BB1eVrhv?ocid=msedgntp#image=BB1eVrhv_1|3

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