Good morning. I’m Elizabeth Cooney, filling in for Ed Silverman today as he prepares to give thanks. Only French roast coffee and feline mascots to tell you about while we greet a holiday-shortened work week on this side of the pond. Here are some news items to get us going:
AstraZeneca (AZN) said Monday that its coronavirus vaccine reduced the risk of Covid-19 infection by an average of 70.4%, according to an interim analysis of large Phase 3 trials conducted in the United Kingdom and Brazil, STAT reports. The AstraZeneca vaccine, developed in partnership with Oxford University, is the third vaccine to announce positive clinical trial results this month. Two other vaccine candidates, one from partners Pfizer and BioNTech and the other from Moderna, showed 95% efficacy against Covid-19 infections in their respective clinical trials.
Vaccinations against Covid-19 in the U.S. will “hopefully” start in less than three weeks, according to Moncef Slaoui, head of the government’s Operation Warp Speed, Bloomberg writes. “On the 11th or on the 12th of December, hopefully the first people will be immunized across the United States,” Slaoui said on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday. Pfizer (PFE) and BioNTech (BNTX) have requested emergency authorization of their vaccine, but it could take at least three weeks for a Food and Drug Administration decision to move forward.
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