January 2022

The UK’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has approved Pfizer’s Paxlovid pill as a COVID-19 treatment. It takes the form of an antiviral medicine and is a combination of active ingredients PF-07321332 and ritonavir:

unilad.co.uk

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It is likely that the disease multiple sclerosis (MS) is a complication of infection by the Epstein-Barr virus. The breakthrough findings have arisen from a dataset of 62 million serum samples taken from over 10 million US military personnel over two decades:

independent.co.uk

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UK Covid testing megalabs “a mistake” in surge:

inews.co.uk

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Dr Ruth March and Dr Julia Thompson, both working at AstraZeneca's Cambridge headquarters, have been awarded OBEs in the New Year Honours for their roles in responding to the Covid-19 pandemic:

BBC

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A self-amplifying mRNA second generation SARS-CoV-2 vaccine booster aimed at tackling multiple variants of the virus has shown promise in inducing a comprehensive immune response in first results of a phase one trial:

peterboroughtoday.co.uk

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AstraZeneca has announced that preliminary trial data showed that its Covid-19 shot, Vaxzevria, generated an increase in antibodies against the Delta, Omicron and other variants when given as a third booster dose:

todayonline.com

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As more people are vaccinated, there are dwindling numbers of COVID-19 patients to evaluate. Going forward, carrying out clinical trials is going to be much more complicated:

nationalgeographic.com

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A new report “Global Market for Contract Research Organization (CRO) Services” shows stellar growth for the market,, particularly for services in clinical trials between Phases II and IV, which account for approximately 60% of total CRO revenue:

reportlinker.com

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The COVID mRNA vaccines manufactured by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna drew upon long-buried discoveries made in the hopes of ending past epidemics:

nytimes.com

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Pfizer, Moderna, Regeneron and many other healthcare companies presented at the 40th annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference and outlined their plans to continue fighting COVID this year:

forbes.com