(Reuters) – The European Union launched a lawsuit against AstraZeneca that could lead to financial sanctions for the company which the EU alleges has breached a supply contract for COVID-19 vaccines. The company’s lawyer said the lawsuit was not needed as there was already one under way against AstraZeneca.
DEATHS AND INFECTIONS
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EUROPE
* The EU is willing to see its COVID-19 vaccine contract with AstraZeneca fulfilled by the company three months later than agreed, providing AstraZeneca delivers 120 million vaccines by the end of June, a lawyer representing the bloc told a Belgian court.
* Pfizer and BioNTech’s vaccine could potentially receive European approval for use in 12-year old children as early as the end of this month, the EU drug regulator’s executive director told the Handelsblatt daily.
* Europe is starting to reopen cities and beaches, raising hopes that this summer’s holiday season can be saved before it is too late.
AMERICAS
* Brazilian states halted vaccination of pregnant women after a death in Rio de Janeiro led health regulator Anvisa to warn against the use of AstraZeneca’s vaccine for expecting women.
* Mexico plans to start phase III clinical trials for Chinese company Walvax Biotechnology’s vaccine on May 30 and 6,000 volunteers are expected to participate, foreign minister Marcelo Ebrard said.
* U.S. regulators authorized Pfizer and BioNTech’s vaccine for use in children as young as 12 and said they could begin receiving shots as soon as Thursday.
ASIA-PACIFIC
* India’s coronavirus crisis showed scant sign of easing, with a seven-day average of new cases at a record high and international health authorities warning that a variant first identified in the country last year was of global concern.
* Vietnam is seeking the transfer of mRNA technology to domestically manufacture COVID-19 vaccines, state media reported.
* The Philippines has detected its first two cases of a coronavirus variant first identified in India, its health ministry said.
MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA
* Kuwait has suspended flights, and barred entry to travellers, from Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka until further notice, state news agency KUNA said.
* Egypt’s Eva Pharma signed an agreement to provide India with 300,000 doses of remdesivir, used in the treatment of COVID-19.
MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS
* The head of the World Trade Organisation said she hoped that by December its members will have reached a “pragmatic” solution over whether to waive COVID-19 vaccine patents.
* Novavax again delayed its timeline for ramping up COVID-19 vaccine production and said it did not expect to seek regulatory authorization for the shot in the United States, Britain and Europe until the third quarter of 2021, sending its shares tumbling.
* BioNTech said its order backlog for delivery of COVID-19 vaccines this year together with partner Pfizer had grown to 1.8 billion doses.
ECONOMIC IMPACT
* Global stock markets suffered a second day of sharp losses on Tuesday as a combination of inflation worries, lofty valuations and an anti-monopoly drive in China sent the world’s tech giants tumbling.
* Oil prices fell on fading fears of a prolonged outage at the largest U.S. fuel pipeline system, and India’s coronavirus crisis and a tech-led sell-off in global stock markets also weighed.
* German investor sentiment surged in May to its highest level since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic thanks to a third wave tailing off, a survey showed, pointing to a big upswing in Europe’s largest economy in the coming six months.
(Compiled by Veronica Snoj and Aditya Soni; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila, Anil D’Silva and Timothy Heritage)
