This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly on January 24, 2022 - January 30, 2022

US drug maker Pfizer will add a production facility for its antiviral Covid-19 pill in France as part of a plan to invest €520 million (US$594 million) in the country over the next five years.

The UK’s health service has expanded its Covid-19 booster vaccination programme to include 16- and 17-year-olds since Jan 17. Previously, booster jabs were limited to 16- and 17-year-olds most at risk from the coronavirus.

From February, Malaysia will inoculate children aged between five and 11 with the Covid-19 vaccine. In a tweet, the Special Committee on Covid-19 Vaccine Supply Access Guarantee said children will receive only paediatric doses of Pfizer-BioNTech’s Cominarty vaccine, which has been proven to be safe and effective. The paediatric dose is a smaller dose equivalent to one-third of the dosage given to individuals aged 12 and above.

Corbevax, a new vaccine against Covid-19, may have better success as a candidate for vaccine equity because it carries no patents, relies on long-established recombinant technology for manufacture and has the support of the US and Indian governments, according to reports.

French biotech firm Valneva said on Jan 19 that preliminary studies showed that three doses of its inactivated Covid-19 vaccine candidate neutralised the Omicron variant of the disease, Reuters reported.

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