Museveni says doctors to start finding out efficacy of Ugandan made COVID-19 medicine on December 15, 2020
INDIAN Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday November 28, 2020 visited three pharmaceutical facilities in the country to review the development and manufacturing process of COVID-19 vaccines.
The Serum Institute in Pune is developing a vaccine that will trigger immunity against COVID-19 in partnership with Oxford's AstraZeneca. Ahmedabad's Zydus Cadila Park is developing a vaccine by Zydus Cadila while the Bharat BioTech headquarters is developing a vaccine named Covaxin.
The development of the COVID-19 vaccines is progressing well, but is at least four months away from being released after international approvals are got.
When it is ready, the COVID-19 vaccine will be distributed initially in India, before being given to developing countries, including Uganda, in an arrangement code named COVAX that is being driven by the World Health Organization (WHO), the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and vaccine alliance fund, GAVI.
Adar Poonawalla, CEO, Serum Institute of India told the press after Modi's visit that "the vaccine will be distributed initially in India, then we will look at the COVAX countries which are mainly in Africa. The UK and European markets are being taken care of by AstraZeneca and Oxford. Our priority is India and COVAX countries."
Uganda on list of 92 countries to benefit from COVAX AMC
The low income nations: Afghanistan, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Nepal, Niger, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan, Syrian Arab Republic, Tajikistan, Togo, Uganda, United Republic of Tanzania and Yemen.
Prime Minister Modi was encouraged by what he saw after his tour of the companies working on a virus.
"Visited the Zydus Biotech Park in Ahmedabad to know more about the indigenous DNA based vaccine being developed by Zydus Cadila. I compliment the team behind this effort for their work," Modi wrote on his social media platform after concluding the visit, saying that the government of India is actively working with them to support them further ramp up vaccine manufacturing.
It increasingly looks like the US will have a vaccine as soon as Christmas for it was announced on Monday November 30 that Moderna's coronavirus vaccine now shows efficacy of 100% against severe coronavirus infections.
Moderna will apply today to the US Food and Drug Administration for an authorisation for coronavirus vaccine.
The COVAX Advance Market Commitment
COVAX is one of three pillars of the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator, launched in April by the World Health Organization (WHO), the European Commission and France in response to this pandemic.(click to watch video)
The 92 low and middle-income countries and economies approved by the GAVI Board will be able to access vaccines through the COVAX Advance Market Commitment (AMC), which will also cover at least part of the cost.
The COVAX AMC forms part of the COVAX Facility, a mechanism hosted by GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance, designed to guarantee rapid, fair and equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines for every country in the world.
No one is safe until everyone is safe. #COVID19 @washingtonpost pic.twitter.com/myjnuVWTRi
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) November 29, 2020
GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance, is a public-private partnership that helps vaccinate half the world’s children against some of the world’s deadliest diseases
Experts say COVAX is the only truly global solution to this pandemic because it is the only effort to ensure that people in all corners of the world will get access to COVID-19 vaccines once they are available, regardless of their wealth. (see WHO deployment plan at bottom)
This is the result of an extraordinary and unique global collaboration, with more than two-thirds of the world engaged. COVAX has the world’s largest and most diverse portfolio of COVID-19 vaccines, and as such represents the world’s best hope of bringing the acute phase of this pandemic to a swift end.
India leads the way; Uganda ready to test COVID-19 medicine
The Indian government has initiated backend preparation for the largest immunization drive in the country, where five COVID-19 vaccine candidates are in advanced stages of development in India.
India's Federal Health Minister Harsh Vardhan last month said the vaccine would likely be available in India by early next year.
On Saturday morning the federal health ministry said the number of COVID-19 cases in the country has reached 9,351,109 and the death toll has risen to 136,200.
India is in the grip of the ongoing pandemic and globally it is the second worst-hit country by COVID-19.
Meanwhile, President Yoweri Museveni on Sunday November 29, 2020 revealed that Uganda is close to developing COVID-19 treatments, with trials of the medicine set to start in the next two weeks.
"Our scientists have given me the good news that they have developed seven wonderful products, six of which are under trial, and one, an immune booster is already being used," Museveni said.
In an address on COVID-19 and security from the Eastern city of Mbale, the President said the first three products are all anti-virals — killing the virus and limiting the damage of the virus to the body.
"They have told me starting December 15, 2020, patients under strict medical supervision will have this medicine tried on them," he said.
The scientists have promised that in 40 days they will be able to prove that the drug works against COVID-19 and other viruses.
The fourth exciting product is a bronchial dilator- a drug that will keep a patient's lung airways open without the need to use the ventilators that cause damage to other body parts where they are inserted.
"Our scientists have also developed two diagnostic tests- one which uses saliva and can give results in 30 minutes. There is always opportunity in adversity," he stated.
So far, Uganda has so lost 201 people to COVID-19, and has had 20,145 cases with 8,989 recoveries.
In comparison, India is one of the worst hit in the world. By Saturday, India had 9,430,724 cases and the death toll risen to 137,152. They have 8,844,751 recoveries.
The USA meanwhile has lost 266,000 people, with a record 13.3 million cases.
Almost half of all cases and deaths are in just four countries, and almost 70% of cases and deaths are in the top 10 countries.
However, there are many countries all over the world, including Uganda, that have shown COVID-19 can be controlled with existing tools.
GAVI lists 92 countries for COVAX
In July the GAVI Board agreed on the 92 economies that will be supported the COVAX Advance Market Commitment (AMC).
- Low income: Afghanistan, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Nepal, Niger, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan, Syrian Arab Republic, Tajikistan, Togo, Uganda, United Republic of Tanzania and Yemen.
- Lower-middle income: Angola, Algeria, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Bolivia, Cabo Verde, Cambodia, Cameroon, Comoros, Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Djibouti, Egypt, El Salvador, Eswatini, Ghana, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Kiribati, Kyrgyztan, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Lesotho, Mauritania, Micronesia, Moldova, Mongolia, Morocco, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, São Tomé and Principe, Senegal, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Timor-Leste, Tunisia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Vietnam, West Bank and Gaza, Zambia and Zimbabwe
- Additional IDA eligible: Dominica, Fiji, Grenada, Guyana, Kosovo, Maldives, Marshall Islands, Samoa, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Tonga and Tuvalu.
Moderna breakthrough
Vaccine efficacy against COVID-19 was 94.1%; vaccine efficacy against severe COVID-19 was 100%
Morderna, a biotechnology company pioneering messenger RNA (mRNA) therapeutics and vaccines to create a new generation of transformative medicines for patients, today announced that the primary efficacy analysis of the Phase 3 study of mRNA-1273 conducted on 196 cases confirms the high efficacy observed at the first interim analysis.
“This positive primary analysis confirms the ability of our vaccine to prevent COVID-19 disease with 94.1% efficacy and importantly, the ability to prevent severe COVID-19 disease. We believe that our vaccine will provide a new and powerful tool that may change the course of this pandemic and help prevent severe disease, hospitalizations and death,” said Stéphane Bancel, Chief Executive Officer of Moderna.
The Company will submit data from the Phase 3 COVE study to a peer-reviewed publication.
Today, Moderna will submit for an EUA with the U.S. FDA and an application for Conditional Marketing Authorization (CMA) with the European Medicines Agency.
Moderna is working with the U.S. CDC, Operation Warp Speed and McKesson (NYSE: MCK), a COVID-19 vaccine distributor contracted by the U.S. government, as well as global stakeholders to be prepared for distribution of mRNA-1273, in the event that it receives an EUA and similar global authorizations and approvals.
By the end of 2020, the Company expects to have approximately 20 million doses of mRNA-1273 available in the U.S. The Company remains on track to manufacture 500 million to 1 billion doses globally in 2021.
Moderna plans to charge $32 to $37 per dose of the vaccine in developed countries but will have cheaper pricing for other parts of the world. The company is reportedly negotiating with the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access Facility, a nonprofit that aims to reduce global vaccine inequities by purchasing and distributing approved products.
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STORY SOURCES: THE INDEPENDENT, SCIENCE MAGAZINE & XINHUA
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WHO vaccine deployment plan
WHO 2019 NCoV Vaccine Deployment 2020 by jadwongscribd on Scribd
