Coronavirus Update: Paxlovid Moves Towards EU Approval, Moderna Targets Omicron

Plus, New China Alliance, Daiichi Assesses mRNA Booster

 
• By Scrip Team
  
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Pfizer gets European Commission approval for Paxlovid after a positive CHMP opinion, while Moderna started a Phase II study of its Omicron-specific vaccine candidate. Meanwhile, China's Junshi enters into a new oral antiviral collaboration while Daiichi Sankyo investigates its mRNA vaccine contender as a booster shot.  

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• Source: Shutterstock: Lightspring

Pfizer Inc. has snagged a conditional marketing authorization (CMA) from the European Commission (EC) for Paxlovid (nirmatrelvir and ritonavir), for patients with COVID-19 who do not require supplemental oxygen and are at increased risk of progressing to severe disease. The decision came just a day after the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) issued a positive opinion on the drug. (Also see "EU Approves Paxlovid For COVID-19" - Pink Sheet, 27 January, 2022.)

The CMA follows by about a month the 22 December US Food and Drug Administration’s emergency use authorization for the...

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