Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Moderna Recruits 30,000 Volunteers To Max Out Final-Stage Vaccine Trial
The Washington Post: Moderna’s Coronavirus Vaccine Trial Is Fully Enrolled; 37 Percent Of Participants Are Minorities
Moderna, the biotechnology firm partnering with the National Institutes of Health to develop a coronavirus vaccine, announced Thursday that it has fully enrolled its trial, with 30,000 participants — more than a third of whom are minorities. The coronavirus vaccine trials have been closely watched to ensure they reflect the diversity of the U.S. population at a minimum, and Moderna’s enrollment was slowed in September to recruit more minorities. A fifth of the participants are Hispanic and 10 percent are Black, according to data released by the company. People over 65, a population also at high risk for coronavirus, make up 25 percent of the study population. (Johnson, 10/22)
USA Today: Pfizer Has Expanded Its COVID-19 Vaccine Trial To Include Teens. Some Say It's Risky. Others Argue It's Necessary.
Pfizer is the only one of the leading drug companies to allow minors into a vaccine trial. Some pediatric vaccine experts say drugmakers and federal regulators should wait until the vaccines have been proven safe and effective in adults before moving to children. ... But Dr. Barbara Pahud, director of research in the infectious diseases department at Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri, said it's immoral not to get kids into trials as soon as possible. "We should not allow children to die," she said. "That's our job as pediatricians to make noise and make sure people are noticing." (Weintraub, 10/22)
Also —
Quartz: Will The Covid-19 Vaccine Be Mandatory?
Given that a vaccine is going to be one of the catalysts in ending the pandemic, could the president mandate that people take it? In a word, no. The US president has never been able to impose a federal mandate of vaccines across the country, and that won’t change anytime soon. (Foley, 10/22)
The Wall Street Journal: Covid-19 Vaccine Makers To Face Challenges When Recognizing Revenue
Drugmakers developing Covid-19 vaccines can add one more challenge to their list: how to account for the sales. The companies will face challenges recognizing revenue due to a lack of specific guidance from U.S. regulators and standard-setters on Covid-19 vaccines and the sheer scale of the production effort. (Maurer, 10/22)
The Wall Street Journal: Palantir To Help U.S. Track Covid-19 Vaccines
Data-mining company Palantir Technologies Inc. is helping the federal government set up a system that will track the manufacture, distribution and administration of Covid-19 vaccines, state and local health officials briefed on the effort said. Palantir has been developing software that federal health officials would use to manage the various vaccine data and identify any issues that could prevent Americans from getting the shots, according to the health officials and materials reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. (Loftus and Winkler, 10/22)
Bloomberg: Investors Brace For Barrage Of Covid Vaccine Data To Roil Market
The next month or two has the potential to wreak havoc in the health-care sector and the market as a barrage of Covid-19 vaccine test results roll in at the tail end of the U.S. presidential election. “The vaccine outlook will ultimately dwarf the election in terms of market impact,” Goldman Sachs’s strategists said. An earlier-than-expected vaccine would send equity values higher while a delay could send the market lower no matter what the election’s outcome, the bank’s analysis shows. (Flanagan, 10/22)
