The Latest on Covid-19 Vaccines
Everything that happened in the race to find a coronavirus vaccine this week
There are still 11 vaccines in phase 3 clinical trials — no change from last week. One more vaccine was approved for limited use in Russia on Wednesday, bringing the global total of limited-use vaccines to six.
Pfizer won’t seek vaccine approval before November: The CEO of Pfizer said on Friday that the company would not apply for emergency authorization of its Covid-19 vaccine before the third week of November, ruling out a vaccine before Election Day on Nov. 3. Though the company could have preliminary data by the end of October on the vaccine’s effectiveness, it would still need time to collect safety and manufacturing data.
Assuming the data is positive, Pfizer says it will apply for Emergency Authorization Use in the U.S. soon after the safety milestone is achieved.
Johnson & Johnson pause vaccine trial. On Monday Johnson & Johnson, one of the front-runners in the Covid-19 vaccine race, paused its trial due to “an unexplained illness in a study participant,” STAT News reported. The company’s phase 3 trial started in September and will include up to 60,000 participants. As the Coronavirus Blog previously noted, pausing trials because of unexpected illness is a good thing: It means…
