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 India scraps local trials for COVID shots
India scrapped local trials for "well-established" foreign
coronavirus vaccines on Thursday to fast-track imports as it battles
a devastating second wave of the pandemic that has killed hundreds
of thousands of people.
So far in May, India has recorded nearly 107,000 COVID-19 deaths,
just over a third of the country's overall toll since the pandemic
began last year.
The government said it was in talks with Pfizer for "earliest
possible" imports of its shots and that it had also had discussions
with Johnson & Johnson and Moderna.
Australia's Victoria state to enter lockdown
Australia's second most populous state of Victoria will enter a
one-week lockdown forcing its near seven million residents to remain
home except for essential business as authorities struggle to
contain a highly-infectious outbreak.
"We're dealing with a highly infectious strain of the virus, a
variant of concern, which is running faster than we have ever
recorded," Victoria state Acting Premier James Merlino told
reporters in Melbourne. "Unless something drastic happens, this will
become increasingly uncontrollable."
Australia has recorded 910 COVID-19 deaths since the pandemic began,
with Victoria accounting for 90%.
Sanofi, GSK launch Phase III trial for their COVID-19 shot
France's Sanofi and Britain's GlaxoSmithKline on Thursday launched a
late-stage human trial for their recombinant COVID-19 vaccine
candidate that they hope to get approved by the end of this year.
The two companies, which earlier this month reported positive
interim results, confirmed their double-blind, placebo-controlled,
Phase III study would include more than 35,000 adults in the United
States, Asia, Africa, and Latin America.
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 Pending a positive outcome, the
vaccine could be approved in the fourth quarter
after having initially been targeted for the
first half of this year before a setback.
Tokyo Games could lead to 'Olympic virus' strain
The head of a Japanese doctors' union warned on Tuesday
that holding the Olympic Games in Tokyo this summer, with tens of
thousands of people from around the world, could lead to the
emergence of an "Olympic" strain of the coronavirus.
Japan has pledged to hold a "safe and secure" 2020 Olympics after a
year-long postponement but it is struggling to contain a fourth wave
of infections and preparing to extend a state of emergency in much
of the country.
Japanese officials, Olympics organisers and the International
Olympic Committee have all vowed the Games will go ahead, albeit
under strict virus-prevention measures. Foreign spectators have been
banned and a decision on domestic ones is expected next month.
Cold viruses used to deliver vaccine tied to rare clot risk
German researchers on Wednesday said they believed they had found
the cause of the rare but serious blood clotting events among some
people who received COVID-19 vaccines made by AstraZeneca and
Johnson & Johnson.
The researchers, in a study not yet reviewed by experts, said
COVID-19 vaccines that employ adenovirus vectors - cold viruses used
to deliver vaccine material - send some of their payload into the
nucleus of cells, where some of the instructions for making
coronavirus proteins can be misread.
The resulting proteins could potentially trigger blood clot
disorders in a small number of recipients.
(Compiled by Linda Noakes; Editing by David Clarke)
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