The NPC Healthbiz Weekly has launched. It's your weekly briefing on topics pertinent to healthcare marketers and executives published in cooperation with Peak Pharma Solutions. From Chronicle Companies, organizers of the National Pharmaceutical Congress. More info at pharmacongress.info
⇒ Confirmed Covid fatalities in Canada as of 12/02: 12,342*
⇒ Worldwide Covid cases as of 12/02: 64,648,033*
⇒ Worldwide Covid fatalities as of 12/02: 1,495,919*
Yesterday (12/02), the U.K. approved the emergency use of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and will begin to make it available to frontline medical workers and geriatric patients in care institutions across the country by next week. Britain is among the first countries to make vaccinations available. Said Pfizer kingpin Dr. Albert Bourla: “With thousands of people becoming infected, every day matters in the collective race to end this devastating pandemic.” U.S. FDA and Health Canada approvals seem likely to follow before year-end.
And arriving just a few minutes ahead of the vaccine shipments, who do we find but the grifters and scam-artists? The Paris-based International Criminal Police Organization (known to the 194 participating national security forces as Interpol) issued an alert to worldwide law-enforcement agencies that racketeers are out to steal vaccine supplies or sell counterfeit versions. Interpol says the threats may appear in both physical and online forms. The virtual scams carry a double-whammy: Interpol’s cybercrimes unit found nearly 60 per cent of online drugstores suspected of selling illegal remedies also placed malware on shoppers’ devices, posing a further risk. Says Interpol’s top cop Jürgen Stock: “It is essential that law enforcement is as prepared as possible for what will be an onslaught of all types of criminal activity linked to the Covid-19 vaccine.” He also warns of a proliferation of fake test kits.
With all those goniffs hanging around the seedy corners of cyberspace plotting crimes, it should reassure Canadians that our federal government just re-awarded itself the authority to spend unlimited sums on no-bid contracts to sole sources, with little oversight or scrutiny. Ottawa has not been forthcoming about details of acquisitions made through the Public Services and Procurement ministry, despite requests from media outlets through the Access to Information Act. Among the known sole-source contracts awarded was a $381.7 million payday to AMD Medicom Inc. of Pointe-Claire, Que., for N95 surgical masks. Minister Anita Anand says she won’t be surprised if some of the goods she’s acquiring from foreign sources fall short of expectations, owing to a sellers’ market for PPE. Her deputy minister, Bill Matthews, summed up the attitude this way: “I have instructed the department to take risks in purchasing PPE. The situation we face requires bold, aggressive action. However, moving decisively and quickly does carry certain risks." Whew. Talk about the very opposite of driving a hard bargain. Now let’s see how long it takes to gather tough kids to take away Anita and Bill’s (unlimited) lunch money. Which is not theirs, of course. It's ours.
COVID CHRONICLE 12-03-20
Parkinson’s disease may be one more CNS comorbidity associated with Covid infection, according to research just published in Lancet Neurology. Prof. Marcelo Merello of Buenos Aires, Argentina and colleagues found about two-thirds of Covid patients present with hyposmia, a common premotor symptom in Parkinson's disease. The authors note, “the hypothetical possibility that a viral infection might trigger a series of processes that result in the development of Parkinson's disease over the long term in individuals with genetic susceptibility.”
Who goes first? That’s always the question in experimental medicine, as well as being the title of an enjoyable book by Dr. Lawrence K. Altman. An advisory committee of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended Tuesday (12/01) that medical workers and geriatric patients in care institutions be the first to receive a coronavirus vaccine. The panel ruling parallels that of the U.K. (see previous item) and comes in advance of any FDA approval. Public health officials predict there won’t be sufficient supplies of vaccines available for the entire country until well into the midway point of 2021. The panel defined “medical workers” broadly, to include administrative and support staff and operational teams such as catering. Approximately 24 million such workers will qualify for early vaccination.
In contrast to the USA’s abdication of global leadership on combating the Covid pandemic and its rejection of the World Health Organization, the Peoples’ Republic of China has stepped up and is pledging to make its domestically developed vaccines available to developing nations. Four Chinese biotech groups have created five candidate vaccines and are enrolling Phase III trial participants in 16 countries, reports CNN. Unlike vaccines developed in the west by companies such as Pfizer and Moderna, the Chinese candidates do not require sub-zero storage, simplifying logistics and distribution. Further unlike the other vaccines, none of the developers have released safety or efficacy data to date.
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