AstraZeneca

Britain on Dec. 8 became the first Western country to start mass coronavirus vaccinations, as Joe Biden pledged his administration would inoculate 100 million people in the United States over the first 100 days of his presidency.

Shipments of the coronavirus vaccine developed by American drugmaker Pfizer and Germany's BioNTech were delivered on Dec. 6 in the U.K. in super-cold containers, two days before it goes public in an immunization program that is being closely watched around the world.

Moderna Inc. said it would ask U.S. and European regulators on Nov. 30 to allow emergency use of its COVID-19 vaccine as new study results confirm the shots offer strong protection, ramping up the race to begin limited vaccinations as the coronavirus rampage worsens.

The OPEC oil producers' club and its allies will hold a virtual meeting on Nov. 30 and Dec. 1 to finalise an expected extension to production cuts as the coronavirus pandemic continues to weigh on global demand.

Days after grabbing headlines with its Covid-19 "vaccine for the world," AstraZeneca is facing tricky questions about its success rate that some experts say could hinder its chances of getting speedy US and EU regulatory approval.

The British government said on Nov. 27 it has asked its independent medicines regulator to assess AstraZeneca's coronavirus vaccine as part of the formal approval process for the drug to be rolled out by the end of the year.

With current vaccine developments, the light at the end of the COVID-19 tunnel is growing brighter, the World Health Organization (WHO) chief said on Nov. 23.

WHO Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus gave an upbeat assessment on vaccine development after recent data showed that more COVID-19 cases had been reported in a recent 4 weeks than in first 6 months of the pandemic.

British drugs group AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford said on Monday they will seek regulatory approval for their coronavirus vaccine after "effective" trials, in the latest potential boost to curbing the global outbreak.

The partners announced that while the vaccine showed an average 70-percent effectiveness, the level jumped to 90 percent depending on dosage. 

British drugs group AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford on Nov. 23 said their jointly-developed vaccine against COVID-19 has shown "an average efficacy of 70 percent" in trials.

AstraZeneca said on Monday its vaccine for the novel coronavirus could be around 90% effective without any serious side effects, the latest drugmaker to unveil positive interim data in a scientific race to curb a global pandemic.