Latest Drug approvals News

A man holds up a child, both wearing face masks to help curb the spread of the coronavirus, to reach out a tree branches at the Wangfujing shopping district in Beijing, Monday, Jan. 18, 2021. A Chinese province grappling with a spike in coronavirus cases is reinstating tight restrictions on weddings, funerals and other family gatherings, threatening violators with criminal charges. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

The Latest: China grapples with virus outbreaks in northeast

Jan. 18, 2021 11:37 PM EST

BEIJING — China is now dealing with coronavirus outbreaks across its frigid northeast, prompting additional lockdowns and travel bans. The country reported a total of 118 newly confirmed cases Tuesday — most of them in Jilin province, the Hebei region just outside Beijing and Heilongjiang province...

Travellers walk towards the Covid-19 testing centre at Heathrow Airport in London, Sunday, Jan. 17, 2021. The UK will close all travel corridors from Monday morning to protect against the coronavirus with travellers entering the country from overseas are required to have proof of a negative Covid test. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)

The Latest: Slovakia wants tests for nearly all in nine days

Jan. 17, 2021 5:01 PM EST

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia — Slovakia is launching a project to test almost all citizens for the coronavirus in nine days. The government hopes the nationwide testing will speed up a recovery from the latest wave of the infections, make it possible for students to return to school in February, help the health...

Nurse Monica Calazans, 54, and the Governor of Sao Paulo Joao Doria celebrate after she got her shot of the COVID-19 vaccine produced by China’s Sinovac Biotech Ltd, at the Hospital das Clinicas in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Sunday, Jan. 17, 2021. (AP Photo/Carla Carniel)

Brazil’s health agency approves the use of two vaccines

Jan. 17, 2021 4:41 PM EST

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazil’s health regulator on Sunday approved the urgent use of coronavirus vaccines made by Sinovac and AstraZeneca, enabling Latin America’s largest nation to begin an immunization program that’s been subject to delay and political disputes. Brazil currently has...

FILE - This Nov. 15, 1995 file photo shows then Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Administrator David Kessler testifying on Capitol Hill in Washington. President-elect Joe Biden has picked Kessler to lead vaccine science in his drive to put 100 million shots into the arms of Americans in his administration's first 100 days and stem the COVID-19 pandemic. (AP Photo/Denis Paquin)

Biden taps former FDA chief Kessler to lead vaccine science

Jan. 15, 2021 8:29 AM EST

WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Joe Biden has picked a former Food and Drug commissioner to lead vaccine science in his drive to put 100 million shots into the arms of Americans in his administration's first 100 days and stem the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. David Kessler, who will have the title of chief...

FILE - In this Monday, Dec. 21, 2020 file photo, under the watchful eye of Prof. Dr. Iftahar Koksal, left, nurse Arzu Yildirim, center, administers a dose of the CoronaVac vaccine, made by Sinovac, then on phase III clinical trials at Acibadem Hospital in Istanbul. Turkish authorities on Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2021, gave the go-ahead for the emergency use of the COVID-19 vaccine produced by China's Sinovac Biotch Ltd. paving the way for the rollout for Turkey's vaccination program starting with health care workers and other high-risk groups in the country of 83 million. Turkey has reported some 2.34 million infections and around 23,000 deaths. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel, File)

Turkey approves China-based Sinovac vaccine's emergency use

Jan. 13, 2021 12:53 PM EST

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkish authorities gave the go-ahead for the emergency use of the COVID-19 vaccine produced by China’s Sinovac Biotech Ltd. on Wednesday, paving the way for the rollout for Turkey’s vaccination program starting with health care workers and other high-risk groups. The...

Ontario Premier Doug Ford looks on as the second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in Canada is administered to personal support worker Anita Quidangen by registered nurse Hiwot Arfaso at The Michener Institute in Toronto on Monday, Jan. 4, 2021. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP)

The Latest: Fla. lawyer in tobacco cases dies from COVID-19

Jan. 12, 2021 9:39 PM EST

PENSACOLA, Fla. — Florida attorney Fred Levin, who won a major legal battle against the tobacco industry in the 1990s, has died several days after contracting the coronavirus. He was 83. An attorney at the Levin Papantonio Rafferty legal firm says Levin died Tuesday from complications of COVID-19, the...

A healthcare worker fills a syringe with the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine at the vaccine centre that has been set up in central Newcastle, Scotland Monday Jan. 11, 2021. The centre is one of the seven mass vaccination centres that opened Monday as the government continues to ramp up the coronavirus vaccination programme. (Owen Humphreys/PA via AP)

EU regulator is considering Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine

Jan. 12, 2021 12:36 PM EST

LONDON (AP) — The European Medicines Agency said Tuesday that AstraZeneca and Oxford University have submitted an application for their COVID-19 vaccine to be licensed across the European Union. The EU regulator said it received a request for the vaccine to be greenlighted under an expedited process and...

FILE - In this Friday, Jan. 8, 2021, file photo, a health worker checks a syringe before performing a trial run of COVID-19 vaccine delivery system, as India's prepare to kick off the coronavirus vaccination drive on Jan. 16, in Gauhati, India. There has been growing apprehensions among health care workers after India took a regulatory shortcut to approve a vaccine by Indian drugmaker Bharat Biotech before late clinical trials showed it was effective in preventing illness from coronavirus infections. (AP Photo/Anupam Nath, File)

India's quick nod to homegrown COVID-19 vaccine seeds doubt

Jan. 11, 2021 2:06 AM EST

NEW DELHI (AP) — As the director of a large hospital in the Indian state that has seen the country's most coronavirus cases, Dr. S.P. Kalantri had been waiting for the day a vaccine would be approved and bring protection not only to his community but also himself. But now he has his doubts about getting...

FILE - In this Jan. 7, 2021, file photo syringes containing the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine sit in a tray in a vaccination room at St. Joseph Hospital in Orange, Calif. Taking a new direction to speed release of coronavirus vaccines, President-elect Joe Biden's office said Friday he would end the current practice of holding back vaccine doses to guarantee that people who get their first shot can also get a required second inoculation three weeks later. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)

With virus surging, Biden to speed release of COVID vaccines

Jan. 8, 2021 10:36 PM EST

WASHINGTON (AP) — With COVID-19 surging and vaccinations off to a slow start, President-elect Joe Biden will rapidly release most available vaccine doses to protect more people, his office said Friday, a reversal of Trump administration policies. “The president-elect believes we must accelerate...

An employee of the Municipal Health Service GGD shows the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine prior to administering it to a health care worker at a coronavirus vaccination facility in Houten, central Netherlands, Friday, Jan. 8, 2021. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

EU regulators OK increasing doses from virus vaccine vials

Jan. 8, 2021 8:29 AM EST

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union's drug agency on Friday approved doctors drawing one more dose from each vial of the coronavirus vaccine made by Pfizer-BioNTech, in a move that — combined with the purchase of 300 million extra shots of the serum — could speed up the pace of vaccinations in...

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