THE International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) has issued an addendum to its COVID-19 guidance following recent developments relating to vaccines and treatment for the pandemic virus.
Noting the interim results of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine candidate, which showed it was 90% effective with no serious side effects reported, FIP said, "until a formal evaluation of all the data has been conducted, no solid conclusions can be drawn, but the current results are encouraging".
"If regulatory approval is given quickly, first doses of the vaccine could be given to healthcare workers and people at high risk by the end of 2020," FIP said.
The addendum also reported that there are 44 COVID-19 candidate vaccines under clinical evaluation, 10 of which are in Phase III,
FIP also noted that while antiviral, Remdesivir, has received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of COVID-19 in adults and children aged 12 years and older who require hospital admission, results from the World Health Organization's (WHO) Solidarity Trial showed it had "little or no impact on survival, initiation of ventilation and length of hospital stay".
FIP added that the WHO had described attempts to reach herd immunity through exposing people to the virus were "problematic and unethical".
WHO Executive Director, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, "letting the virus circulate unchecked therefore means allowing unnecessary infections, suffering and death".
The above article was sent to subscribers in Pharmacy Daily's issue from 19 Nov 20
To see the full newsletter, see the embedded issue below or CLICK HERE to download Pharmacy Daily from 19 Nov 20
