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Pfizer, Moderna To Increase Covid Vaccine Supply

Covid vaccine developers Pfizer and Moderna are planning to boost supply of their respective vaccines to fight against coronavirus.

Pfizer plans to increase the weekly shipments of Pfizer-BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccine to more than 13 million doses, while Moderna is aiming to supply 40 million doses monthly.

According to Pfizer, the latest improvements reflect FDA’s recent approval of a 6-dose label for each vial, the doubling of its batch sizes, increased yields per batch, and reduced cycle times, as well as deployment of faster laboratory tests to reduce release times.

In a written testimony before a House subcommittee, Pfizer’s Chief Business Officer John Young said the company expects to increase the number of doses it makes available for shipment to more than 13 million doses per week by the middle of March. This is compared to around 4 to 5 million doses per week at the beginning of February.

Pfizer said it is on track to make 120 million doses available for shipment by the end of March and an additional 80 million doses by the end of May. And, the company anticipates that all 300 million contracted doses will be available for shipment by the end of July, enabling the vaccination of up to 150 million Americans.

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UK unemployment rate hits 4-year high in final quarter of 2020 but data shows ‘tentative’ signs of stabilizing

  • The UK unemployment rate rose to 5.1% in the fourth quarter of 2020, the highest since 2016.
  • Yet company payrolls rose in January, when the UK went into national lockdown, suggesting the jobs markets may be stabilizing.
  • The UK suffered the worst slump out of the G7 in 2020 and has seen more than 120,000 deaths.

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