RepliCel Life Sciences Inc (TSXV:RP)
RepliCel is a regenerative medicine company developing autologous cell therapies that address diseases caused by a deficit of healthy cells required for normal healing and function.
British health authorities have begun rolling out the first doses of a widely tested and reviewed COVID-19 vaccine, starting a global immunization program, reports The Washington Post.
The first shot came on Tuesday morning at one of a network of hospital hubs where the initial phase of the U.K. program will be rolled out on what has been dubbed “V-Day.”
The first recipient was grandmother Margaret Keenan, who turns 91 next week. She received the shot at University Hospital Coventry at 6:31 a.m. (U.K. time, 07.31 CET). Among those older Britons scheduled to get vaccinated is Hari Shukla, of Newcastle.
The first 800,000 doses are going to people over 80 who are either hospitalised or already have outpatient appointments scheduled, along with nursing home workers.
Most of the people will have to wait until next year to be dosed as at present only those who are most at risk will be vaccinated.
The U.K. is getting a head start on the project after British regulators on Dec. 2 gave emergency nod to the vaccine developed by Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) and Germany’s BioNTech (NASDAQ:BNTX).
U.S. and European Union authorities are also reviewing the vaccine, alongside rival products developed by Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA), and a collaboration between Oxford University and drugmaker AstraZeneca (NASDAQ:AZN).
The first shipments of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine were delivered to a selected group of U.K. hospitals on Sunday.
In England, the vaccine will be delivered at 50 hospital hubs in the first wave of the program. Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales are making their own plans under the U.K.’s system of devolved administration.
On Saturday, Russia began vaccinating thousands of doctors, teachers and others at dozens of centers in Moscow with its Sputnik V vaccine.
COVID-19 vaccine-related names: Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ), Merck (NYSE:MRK), Sanofi (NASDAQ:SNY), GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE:GSK), Dynavax (NASDAQ:DVAX), Novavax (NASDAQ:NVAX).
U.S. hospitals are rushing to firm up plans for deciding which high-priority groups can receive the COVID-19 vaccine first, with initial supplies widely expected to fall short.
December vaccine deliveries are forecast to only be enough for about 20M people, according to federal officials, slightly less than the 24M needed to vaccinate all front-line medical professionals and long-term care residents.
President Trump is meanwhile expected to sign an “America First” executive order today designed to ensure that U.S. efforts to assist other countries in vaccinating their populations against COVID-19 take on a lower priority than domestic inoculations.
The “Vaccine Summit” at the White House will also feature talks with administration officials and drug distributors, who will discuss the process of reviewing vaccine candidates and distributing them, just days before the FDA is expected to authorize a promising vaccine made by Pfizer (NYSE:PFE). However, both Pfizer and Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA), the two major drug manufacturers likely to receive emergency authorizations for their vaccines, have rejected invitations from Trump to appear at the summit, STAT reports.
Can your boss fire you if you refuse to get a COVID vaccine? Yes, but there are may be a few exceptions (medical reasons, if the workforce is unionized, or if taking it is against a “sincerely held” religious belief).
Roughly four in 10 Americans say they would “definitely” or “probably” not get a vaccine, according to a recent survey by Pew Research. To achieve herd immunity, experts say that about 70% of the population needs to be vaccinated or have natural antibodies.
Swiss Federal Government has increased its confirmed order commitment from 4.5M to 7.5M doses of Moderna’s (NASDAQ:MRNA) vaccine candidate against COVID-19, mRNA-1273.
“As we continue to progress the development of mRNA-1273, our COVID-19 vaccine candidate, we appreciate the continued confidence and support shown by the Swiss Federal Government as they increase their supply agreement with us,” said Stephane Bancel, Moderna’s Chief Executive Officer.
This updated agreement comes as 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, indicating a vaccine efficacy of 94.1% against COVID-19 and 100% efficacy against severe disease.
MRNA +2.8% premarket to $164.01
Cantor Fitzgerald says it is growing more pessimistic about federal level cannabis reform over the next two years after what was basically a symbolic House vote on MORE last week.
“Recent MJ related rhetoric from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Vice-President elect Kamala Harris, all make us think Republicans and Democrats are a lot more divided on what relates to cannabis reform than we had assumed (relatively speaking, vs. other matters),” notes analyst Pablo Zuanic.
Zuanic puts the odds of SAFE passing the Senate in the next two years at less than 30%, STATES at 10% and MORE at 1%.
“All this said then, when it comes to further deregulation, we will remain focused on reform at the state-level (which will be the next ones to launch rec programs? and or start medical programs? and states that may loosen the rules of their medical programs?). If we stretch to look for a silver lining in all this, we would note of the 91 Republican House members that voted for the SAFE bill in Sep 2019, there were five from TX and four from GA (future med states?).”
Centene (NYSE:CNC) has completed its acquisition of Apixio, a healthcare analytics company offering Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology solutions.
Apixio will remain an operationally independent entity as part of Centene’s Health Care Enterprises group to continue bringing value to its clients and the industry, while also realizing the benefits of enhanced scale with Centene.
