U.K. Orders 90 Million Vaccine Doses from Pfizer, Valneva

[left-of-center2012]

Source: Bloomberg

July 19, 2020, 11:45 PM MDT

The U.K. has signed agreements to buy 90 million doses of vaccines in development by drugmakers including Pfizer Inc., BioNTech SE and Valneva SE, joining countries around the world racing to secure supplies of protection against Covid-19.

Pfizer and BioNTech plan to supply 30 million doses of their vaccine candidate this year and next, the companies said. France’s Valneva agreed to supply the U.K. with 60 million doses of the shot it’s developing, and another 40 million if the product proves safe and effective.

Britain, a nation of 66 million people, has already struck a supply agreement for a vaccine being tested by AstraZeneca Plc with the University of Oxford.

The U.K. described the order for the vaccine being developed by Pfizer and BioNTech as that alliance’s first binding agreement with any government. The U.S. has been supporting the companies’ efforts through its $10 billion Operation Warp Speed research program.

Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-07-20/u-k-orders-90-million-vaccine-doses-from-pfizer-valneva?cmpid=BBD072020_CORONAVIRUS&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_term=200720&utm_campaign=coronavirus

[Backseat Driver]

1. Pretty optimistic to be already inking deals for a vaccine...

Hmmmm...Here's story about some research about another promising pharma-marketplace drug treatment that might reduce severity down to that of the common cold from a professor out of Hebrew University in Jerusalem:

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-07-cholesterol-lowering-meds-potential-downgrade-covid-.html

Could a simple drug that has been on the market for decades be used to treat COVID-19? A research team led by Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HU)'s Professor Yaakov Nahmias says that early research looks promising; their findings appear in this week's Cell Press Sneak Peak.

Over the last three months, Nahmias and Dr. Benjamin tenOever at New York's Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have focused on the ways in which the SARS-CoV-2 changes patients' lungs in order to reproduce itself. Their major finding? This virus prevents the routine burning of carbohydrates. As a result, large amounts of fat accumulate inside lung cells, a condition the virus needs in order to reproduce. This new understanding of SARS CoV-2 may help explain why patients with high blood sugar and cholesterol levels are often at a particularly high risk to develop COVID-19.

Viruses are parasites that lack the ability to replicate on their own, so they take control of our cells to help accomplish that task. "By understanding how the SARS-CoV-2 controls our metabolism, we can wrestle back control from the virus and deprive it from the very resources it needs to survive," Nahmias explained.

With this information in hand, Nahmias and tenOever began to screen FDA-approved medications that interfere with the virus' ability to reproduce. In lab studies, the cholesterol-lowering drug Fenofibrate (Tricor) showed extremely promising results. By allowing lung cells to burn more fat, fenofibrate breaks the virus' grip on these cells, and prevents SARS CoV-2's ability to reproduce. In fact, within only five days of treatment, the virus almost completely disappeared.

[left-of-center2012]

5. "Pretty optimistic to be already inking deals for a vaccine..."

No, this has been mentioned in the news for months.

If a vaccine looks promising (read the article, these look promising) countries would place purchases in advance
so, if it proves effective, countries don't have to wait to later make purchases.

It's been talked about for some months.

[bucolic_frolic]

2. Sorry, just another feel good story timed to support the stock market opening on Monday /nt

[Botany]

3. 90 million doses of a vaccine that hasn't been made yet?

[left-of-center2012]

6. ...

This has been mentioned in the news for months.

If a vaccine looks promising (read the article, these look promising) countries would place purchases in advance
so, if it proves effective, countries don't have to wait to later make purchases.

It's been talked about for some months.

[DrToast]

7. It has been made

It was made months ago and it’s already in clinical trials.

[brooklynite]

4. UPDATE: Coronavirus: Oxford vaccine triggers immune response

A coronavirus vaccine developed by the University of Oxford appears safe and triggers an immune response.

Trials involving 1,077 people showed the injection led to them making antibodies and T-cells that can fight coronavirus.

The findings are hugely promising, but it is still too soon to know if this is enough to offer protection and larger trials are under way.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-53469839