Good morning, everyone, and how are you today? We are doing just fine, thank you, now that the Pharmalot campus has settled down. The short person is hunched over the laptop for another day of remote learning and the official mascot is finally starting to snooze after a long constitutional. All of which means that we can focus on the matters at hand — brewing cups of stimulation and foraging for items of interest. On that note, here is the latest menu of tidbits to get you started. Hope that all goes well today and that you stay safe. …
The AstraZeneca (AZN) Covid-19 vaccine trial in the U.S. is expected to resume as early as this week after the Food and Drug Administration completed its review of a serious illness in a study participant, Reuters reports. The trial has been on hold since Sept. 6, after a participant in the company’s UK trial fell ill with what was suspected to be a rare spinal inflammatory disorder called transverse myelitis. It was unclear how the FDA would characterize the illness.
After months of caving to pressure from the White House, FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn and a band of agency scientists have eked out a few victories, The New York Times tells us. In what might be the final months of the Trump administration, and close enough to the election to make his firing unlikely, Hahn seems to be trying to save the FDA from the fate of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, whose scientists have been stripped of much of their authority and independence in responding to the pandemic.
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