Moderna

Moderna's coronavirus vaccine was set for imminent approval in the U.S. on Dec. 17, as COVID death tolls climbed around the world, with Europe becoming the first region to pass 500,000 fatalities and Brazil notching more than 1,000 deaths in 24 hours.

The European Union will take up its option to buy up to 100 million more doses of Pfizer and BioNTech's Covid-19 vaccine after turning down an opportunity in July for a much bigger deal, according to EU officials and an internal document.

The Financial Times has selected Turkish-German scientists Uğur Şahin and Özlem Türeci, who are at the helm of developing the world's first effective coronavirus vaccine, as 2020 People of the Year.

They are the symbol of a remarkable scientific and business success story, said the Financial Times.

Britain has agreed to spend 3.7 billion pounds on Covid-19 vaccines and in most cases will bear the liability if claims are made against the pharmaceutical companies involved.

Those that are self-financing will be guaranteed sufficient doses to protect a certain proportion of their population, depending on how much they buy into it; funded countries will receive enough doses to vaccinate up to 20 per cent of their population in the longer term.

The WHO says the programme represents "a huge success for multilateralism and cooperation."

Hundreds more hospitals around the country began dispensing COVID-19 shots to their workers in a rapid expansion of the U.S. vaccination drive on Dec. 15, while a second vaccine moved to the cusp of government authorization.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) is aiming to approve the Covid-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech on December 23, German newspaper Bild reported on Tuesday, citing government and European Commission sources.

Pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca says it is buying U.S. drug developer Alexion in a deal worth $39 billion.

Cambridge, England-based AstraZeneca PLC, which is involved in one of the efforts to develop a COVID-19 vaccine, said on Dec. 12 it's using a combination of cash and shares for the acquisition of Boston-based Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc.

The U.S. green-lighted the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine late Dec. 11, paving the way for millions of vulnerable people to receive their shots in the world's hardest-hit country.

President Donald Trump immediately released a video on Twitter, where he hailed the news as a "medical miracle" and said the first immunizations would take place "in less than 24 hours."

Documents related to the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine were illegally accessed during a cyberattack at the EU regulator, the company said on Dec. 9, as Germany and other northern hemisphere countries grappled with a winter surge in the pandemic.