MedTech

US offers investment to boost global COVID vaccine capacity

Pressed to address gaping inequality in global COVID-19 vaccines, the Biden administration took steps Wednesday to make billions of dollars available to drugmakers to scale up domestic production to share with the world and prepare for the next pandemic. Under the new initiative, the government’s Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority is soliciting pharmaceutical companies […]

What is the difference between Biotech and Pharma?

The merger between medicine and technology has been on the rise for quite some time, and exponential development in integrating the digital world with the medical one has grown on various frontiers. So, what is the difference between Biotech and Pharma? Biotechnology companies focus on producing medicine originated from living organisms, while pharmaceutical medications are […]

UK becomes first country to approve oral pill treating COVID-19

The UK’s medical regulator approved on Thursday the first oral pill treating COVID-19 developed by U.S.-based pharmaceutical companies Merck, Sharp and Dohme, and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, with the government ordering 480,000 courses due for delivery in November. The pill, called Molnupiravir, will be administered to those recently diagnosed with the virus twice a day. The pill […]

Pfizer says COVID-19 pill cut hospital, death risk by 90%

Pfizer Inc. said Friday that its experimental antiviral pill for COVID-19 cut rates of hospitalization and death by nearly 90% in high-risk adults, as the drugmaker joins the race to bring the first easy-to-use medication against the coronavirus to the U.S. market. Currently all COVID-19 treatments used in the U.S. require an IV or injection. […]

Amid US sanctions, Huawei highlights uses for 5G technology

China’s Huawei Technologies Co. is providing smart services and 5G technology to industries such as healthcare, creating new revenue streams that might offset the damage to its smartphone business from U.S. sanctions. In the southern city of Guangzhou, the company teamed up with the Guangdong Second Provincial General Hospital to equip it with 5G technology […]

Indonesia first to green light Novavax COVID-19 vaccine

Biotechnology company Novavax said Monday that Indonesia has given the world’s first emergency use authorization for its COVID-19 vaccine, which uses a different technology than current shots. The vaccine doesn’t require the extremely cold storage temperatures that some other vaccines need, which could allow it to play an important role in boosting supplies in poorer […]

Pfizer says COVID-19 vaccine more than 90% effective in kids

Kid-size doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine appear safe and nearly 91% effective at preventing symptomatic infections in 5- to 11-year-olds, according to study details released Friday as the U.S. considers opening vaccinations to that age group. The shots could begin in early November — with the first children in line fully protected by Christmas — […]

FDA OKs mixing COVID vaccines; backs Moderna, J&J boosters

U.S. regulators on Wednesday signed off on extending COVID-19 boosters to Americans who got the Moderna or Johnson & Johnson vaccine and said anyone eligible for an extra dose can get a brand different from the one they received initially. The Food and Drug Administration’s decisions mark a big step toward expanding the U.S. booster […]

FDA panel endorses booster shot for J&J COVID-19 vaccine

U.S. health advisers endorsed a booster of Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine Friday, citing concern that Americans who got the single-dose shot aren’t as protected as those given two-dose brands. J&J told the Food and Drug Administration that an extra dose adds important protection as early as two months after initial vaccination — but that […]

UN endorses world's 1st malaria vaccine as 'historic moment'

The World Health Organization on Wednesday endorsed the world’s first malaria vaccine and said it should be given to children across Africa in the hope that it will spur stalled efforts to curb the spread of the parasitic disease. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called it “a historic moment” after a meeting in which two […]