Pharmaceutical industry

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.

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.

Britain on Dec. 2 became the first country to approve Pfizer-BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine for general use and said it would be introduced next week.    

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.

Early results are arriving from the third phase of clinical trials involving Covid-19 vaccine candidates and they are highly promising so far

Today, the European Commission has reached a first agreement with the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca to purchase a potential vaccine against COVID-19 as well as to donate to lower and middle income countries or re-direct to other European countries.

Working in a news organization gives you the opportunity to meet important people with fascinating personal and professional histories. It is a sort of antidote to the toxicity of the public sphere.

The development of a vaccine against coronavirus is possible by October, according to Albert Bourlas, head of the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer.

In an interview with Kathimerini, he said the company he manages has a budget of 2 billion euros for the research that will lead to the discovery of the vaccine and the creation of antiviral drugs.

The goal is to ensure that they are fairly distributed around the world, the business daily "Handelsblatt" reported.

Today, the Commission has published guidance to ensure that clinical trials can continue taking place in the EU during the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim is to mitigate the disruption of clinical research in Europe and therefore the negative effects of the pandemic, without compromising on quality and safety.