Corona vaccine market is shrinking: Biontech presents quarterly figures
Monday, May 6, 2024, 8:05 a.m.: The corona vaccine business is shrinking and shrinking – this is also reflected in Biontech’s books. The company is investing billions in the development of drugs against cancer.
The vaccine manufacturer Biontech will report on the start of the 2024 financial year this Monday. After the significant drop in profits and sales in the previous year, the Mainz company presents its figures for the first quarter. In 2023, the shrinking Covid-19 vaccine business had significantly reduced revenues and profits.
Ultimately, Biontech had a net profit of 930.3 million euros in 2023 – significantly less than the 9.4 billion euros in the previous year. Sales in 2023 were 3.8 billion euros after 17.3 billion in the previous year. For 2024, the company led by co-founder Ugur Sahin expects sales of between 2.5 billion and 3.1 billion euros.
The focus at Biontech has long been on oncological research again, and the first cancer drug is scheduled to be brought onto the market in 2026. In 2023 alone, the people of Mainz spent around 1.8 billion euros on research and development, and in 2024 the total is expected to be between 2.4 billion and 2.6 billion euros.
SPD: State government must finally demand money back from mask deals
Thursday, May 3rd, 5 a.m.: The state parliament’s SPD has called on the state government to finally initiate repayments from controversial mask deals during the corona pandemic. “The Söder government must finally act,” said SPD parliamentary group leader Florian von Brunn on Thursday. He referred to answers from the Ministry of Justice to a request from the state parliament’s SPD. Accordingly, “the examination of reversal claims (…) has not yet been completed”. “Do you assume that in the end you have no chance at all?” asked von Brunn. “That would explain why nothing has been achieved for many months.” Then the state government would finally have to give the citizens pure wine.
According to experts, millions of corona protective masks that the Free State purchased at high prices in 2020 should not have been placed on the market or given to medical staff due to insufficient certificates. After their testimony in a mask investigation committee in the state parliament at the end of 2022, parliament asked the state government to examine claims for repayment.
The Free State still has tens of millions of masks in stock from the Corona period: around 75 million usable masks are currently kept in the pandemic central warehouse, according to the state government’s answer to the SPD request. Complaints procedures are still pending for around 30 million more masks or they have had to be blocked for safety reasons.
WHO member countries are struggling for pandemic agreements
Monday, April 29, 12:43 p.m.: The 194 member countries of the World Health Organization (WHO) have been fighting for a planned pandemic agreement in Geneva since Monday in a final round of negotiations. It is intended to prevent global chaos like the corona pandemic and ensure that all countries have equal opportunities to obtain medicines and vaccines. The agreement is expected to be adopted at the WHO annual meeting at the end of May/beginning of June. The negotiations are scheduled to last twelve days.
“The level of ambition has already been reduced,” said a diplomat in Geneva. The latest draft text has been shortened to 23 pages and contains many phrases that restrict obligations, such as “preferably” or “where appropriate”. Governments should strengthen surveillance capacities in the health system “where appropriate”. Or: Technology transfer for the production of medicines or vaccines should take place “under mutually agreed conditions”.
Nevertheless, according to the diplomat, the agreement offers “added value”. “Having nothing at all would be worse,” he said. The draft stipulates that the WHO receives 20 percent of the pandemic products produced free of charge or can purchase them cheaply for distribution in poorer countries. It will also coordinate a supply chain network. In the event of a pandemic, this is intended to ensure that every country quickly receives the material it needs to protect people and contain the spread of a disease. During the corona pandemic, countries imposed export bans that were harshly criticized. This also included Germany, which temporarily did not allow protective clothing across its borders.
More than 20 organizations that advocate for fair participation in poorer countries criticized the draft. It does not guarantee that all countries will quickly receive pandemic products or financing for their health systems, but it does contain obligations to monitor health that are difficult to fulfill. If the agreement is adopted at the WHO meeting, it would come into force once 60 countries have ratified it. The provisions would only apply to countries that have ratified the agreement. The text explicitly states that the WHO can never impose lockdowns, travel restrictions or introduce compulsory vaccinations.
WHO: In der CoronaDuring the pandemic, antibiotics were prescribed too often
Friday, April 26, 6:35 p.m.: According to the World Health Organization (WHO), patients were prescribed antibiotics far too often during the corona pandemic. According to their information, this could have exacerbated the spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), the WHO reported on Friday in Geneva. What this means is that bacteria, viruses, parasites and fungi become resistant to medications, which can be life-threatening for those affected.
Only eight percent of those infected with corona in hospitals also had bacterial infections that could be treated with antibiotics. But on average around the world, 75 percent received this medication “in case it helps,” as the WHO wrote. More urgently needs to be done to use antibiotics correctly and only where they can be beneficial. In the event of a corona infection, they would have done nothing for the patients.
The WHO evaluated the anonymized data of around 450,000 people for the analysis. These were people who were in hospitals with a corona infection in 65 countries between January 2020 and March 2023.
You can read older news about the corona pandemic on the next pages.
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