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Authorities arrested a suburban Milwaukee pharmacist Thursday suspected of deliberately ruining hundreds of doses of coronavirus vaccine by removing them from refrigeration for two nights...Police...said the Advocate Aurora Health pharmacist was arrested on suspicion of reckless endangerment, adulterating a prescription drug and criminal damage to property, all felonies. The pharmacist has been fired and police said in a news release that he was in jail. Police did not identify the pharmacist, saying he has not yet been formally charged...His motive remains unclear. Police said that detectives believe he knew the spoiled doses would be useless and people who received them would mistakenly think they’d been vaccinated when they hadn’t...READ MORE

Novavax Inc has begun a large late-stage study of its experimental COVID-19 vaccine in the United States, the drug developer said on Monday, after delaying the trial twice due to issues in scaling up the manufacturing process...It will enroll up to 30,000 volunteers across about 115 sites in the United States and Mexico, with two-thirds of them receiving the shot 21 days apart and the rest getting placebo, the company said...READ MORE

The U.S. government has reached a deal to acquire 100 million more doses of Pfizer and BioNTech's coronavirus vaccine, giving the U.S. enough of a stockpile to vaccinate 100 million total residents. The vaccine is administered via two shots...Under the deal, Pfizer will deliver 70 million doses by the end of June and another 30 million by July 31 The U.S. also retains an option to acquire an additional 400 million doses of the vaccine. As with the original supply deal the two struck in July, Pfizer will receive $1.95 billion, suggesting a per-dose price of about $20...READ MORE

The U.S. government is close to a deal to acquire tens of millions of additional doses of Pfizer's vaccine in exchange for helping the pharmaceutical giant gain better access to manufacturing supplies...the deal is under discussion and could be finalized shortly...READ MORE

The U.K.'s drug regulator has authorized a coronavirus vaccine from AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford, the first clearance for a shot viewed as critical to global immunization efforts but whose exact effectiveness is uncertain...The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency based its decision on positive data from studies in the U.K., Brazil and South Africa, which showed the shot was able to prevent symptomatic COVID-19 in a majority of vaccinated participants and protect against severe disease. The authorization comes less than a year after a team of Oxford researchers adapted pre-existing work on different coronaviruses to develop a shot for SARS-CoV-2...READ MORE

Will mRNA vaccines continue to protect the public against COVID-19 as mutant strains emerge? Pfizer and Moderna have set out to answer that question...After a mutated, fast-spreading variant of COVID-19 in the U.K. disrupted global travel over the weekend, a troubling question emerged: Will the new vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna work against this scary new strain of the virus?... They’re launching new studies designed to prove their mRNA-based shots will fend off the new coronavirus strain, while simultaneously expressing confidence this new vaccine technology is ideal for protecting against rapidly mutating viruses...READ MORE

Scientists are eyeing a potential culprit causing the allergic reactions to the Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE Covid-19 vaccine: the compound polyethylene glycol, also known as PEG...Six severe allergic reactions to the vaccine have been reported in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, out of 272,001 doses administered through Dec. 19. At least two cases of anaphylaxis have also occurred in the U.K. People in the U.S. began receiving Moderna Inc.’s vaccine Monday, and no allergic reactions to it have been reported so far...READ MORE (full story behind pay wall)

The amount of money flowing into the biopharma industry via grants and collaborations with nonprofit and government entities is a 272% increase over last year, with efforts to fight the COVID-19 pandemic accounting for 84% of the total for 2020...BioWorld has tracked 855 bio/nonprofit deals worth $14.66 billion and 630 grants awarded to the industry and valued at $12.72 billion for a combined total this year of 1,485 and $27.4 billion. Companies developing therapeutics and vaccines for the SARS-CoV-2 virus are the recipients of about $23 billion of those funds through 628 deals (42%)...READ MORE

The new brand name for Pfizer and BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine, Comirnaty mashes up community, immunity, mRNA and COVID—pretty much everything that could fit into the moniker for the world's most high-profile product at the moment...How did those concepts become a brand? We asked the naming agency behind both Comirnaty and its non-proprietary name, tozinameran—industry heavyweight Brand Institute, which began working with BioNTech in April. Pfizer joined the effort shortly after, when the duo’s vaccine collaboration was announced...READ MORE

The Southern Nevada Health District on Tuesday received its first shipment of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine...The initial shipment of 15,478 doses of the vaccine manufactured by Moderna will be used by the health district to vaccinate front-line health care workers, according to a statement from the agency. It comes on the heels of the 27,675 doses of the Pfizer vaccine the district already has received...Clark County hospitals also will receive shipments of 15,478 Moderna doses over the coming week...READ MORE