ZURICH: Any vaccine to fight the new coronavirus will not be ready for use for at least two years, the chief executive of Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis , which no longer makes vaccines itself, told a German newspaper.
Novartis sold its vaccine business in 2015 to GlaxoSmithKline, one of many companies around the world now racing to make a drug. Some companies are already testing vaccine candidates on humans.
“The results of the first clinical studies on the vaccine candidates should be available in autumn,” Novartis CEO Vas Narasimhan told Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ). “If everything goes as we hope, it will take 24 months before we have a vaccine.”
For instance, Moderna Inc. has sped up plans for its experimental COVID-19 vaccine and said it expected to start a late-stage trial in early summer.
But experts have said no vaccine is expected to be ready for use until at least 2021, as they must be widely tested in humans before being administered to hundreds of millions, if not billions, of people to prevent infection.
Narasimhan, who headed development at Novartis’s vaccine business before the Basel-based company concluded it was too small to keep and should be unloaded, said producing enough vaccine for the world would also be a challenge.
He said building a new factory usually took three or four years. “That’s way too long,” he told FAZ. “We have to use the existing production network to produce large quantities quickly.”
Novartis CEO says any new coronavirus vaccine will take two years
https://arab.news/9x4gz
Novartis CEO says any new coronavirus vaccine will take two years
- Novartis sold its vaccine business in 2015 to GlaxoSmithKline
- Some companies are already testing vaccine candidates on humans
Mine collapse in eastern Congo leaves 200 dead, authorities say, but rebels dispute the number
- Senior M23 official Fanny Kaj disputed the figure, saying that the collapse was caused by “bombings”
- Ibrahim Taluseke, a miner at the site, said that he had helped to recover more than 200 bodies from the area
GOMA, Congo: A mine collapse at a major coltan mining site in eastern Congo left at least 200 dead, according to Congolese authorities, a number disputed by the rebel group that controls the mine.
The collapse took place Tuesday at the Rubaya mines, which are controlled by the M23 rebel group, Congo’s Ministry of Mines said in a statement on Wednesday. It was the latest such tragedy in the mineral-rich and rebel-controlled territories of the country.
But senior M23 official Fanny Kaj disputed the figure, saying that the collapse was caused by “bombings” and only five people had been killed.
“I can confirm that what people are publishing is not true. There was no landslide; there were bombings, and the death toll isn’t what people are saying. It’s simply about five people who died,” Kaj said.
Ibrahim Taluseke, a miner at the site, said that he had helped to recover more than 200 bodies from the area.
“We are afraid, but these are lives that are in danger,” said Taluseke. “The owners of the pits do not accept that the exact number of deaths be revealed.”
Rubaya lies in the heart of eastern Congo, a mineral-rich part of the Central African nation which for decades has been ripped apart by violence from government forces and different armed groups, including the Rwanda-backed M23 group, whose recent resurgence has escalated the conflict, worsening an already acute humanitarian crisis.
Congo is a major supplier of coltan, a black metallic ore that contains the rare metal tantalum, a key component in the production of smartphones, computers and aircraft engines.
The country produced about 40 percent of the world’s coltan in 2023, according to the US Geological Survey, with Australia, Canada and Brazil being other big suppliers. More than 15 percent of the world’s supply of tantalum comes from Rubaya’s mines.
In May 2024, M23 seized the town and took control of its mines. According to a UN report, since seizing Rubaya, the rebels have imposed taxes on the trade and transport of coltan, generating at least $800,000 a month.
Eastern Congo has been in and out of crisis for decades. Various conflicts have created one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises with more than 7 million people displaced, including more than 300,000 who have fled their homes since December.
In June, the Congolese and Rwandan government signed a peace deal brokered by the US and negotiations continue between rebels and Congo. However, fighting continues on several fronts in eastern Congo, continuing to claim numerous civilian and military casualties.
The deal between Congo and Rwanda also opens up access to critical minerals for the US government and American companies.
A similar collapse last month killed more than 200 people.
