Germany hits back at US patent waiver proposal for Covid-19 vaccines May 7, 2021 Germany has rejected the Covid-19 vaccine patent proposal today, urging that production capacity is key to boosting vaccine output. The country’s health minister said the primary challenge to increasing production volumes of vaccines is quickly and effectively transferring technology. “The main issue is not patent protection but production capacity,” Jens Spahn, said at a news [...]
The EU will sign a post-Brexit deal on financial services, PwC boss predicts, because it ‘needs London’ April 26, 2021 The EU will grant the City of London access to its capital markets and agree a post-Brexit deal on financial services because it “needs London”, PwC has predicted. The financial services sector was left out of the post-Brexit trade deal agreed between the two sides last year, but the Big Four firm is predicting the [...]
EU sets out plans to curb facial recognition in Big Brother crackdown April 21, 2021 The EU has set out plans to regulate the use of “risky” artificial intelligence (AI) such as facial recognition with hefty fines for companies that breach the rules. The draft rules, published by the European Commission today, mark the first international efforts to curb the use of technology that critics warn could be used by [...]
EU ‘will not renew’ Covid vaccine contracts with Astrazeneca and Johnson & Johnson April 14, 2021 The European Commission will not renew Covid vaccine contracts with Astrazeneca and Johnson & Johnson beyond their current expiry dates, according to Italian media reports. The EU will instead prioritise contracts with pharmaceutical companies that produce mRNA vaccines such as Moderna and Pfizer, Italian newspaper La Stampa reported. “The European Commission, in agreement with the [...]
EU turns to Pfizer for more Covid jabs amid fresh vaccine shortage April 14, 2021 The EU has ordered an extra 50m doses of the Pfizer/Biontech Covid vaccine following Johnson & Johnson’s surprise announcement yesterday that jab deliveries to Europe face significant delays. European Commission president Ursula Von der Leyen said this afternoon that the bloc will bring forward an order of 50m doses of the vaccine which had been [...]
Brexit: We must use EU divorce to slash tariffs for developing nations and boost UK trade, says PM adviser April 13, 2021 Brexit: We must use EU divorce to slash tariffs for developing nations and boost UK trade, says PM adviser
Google steps up fight against fake news with $29m contribution to new EU fund March 31, 2021 Google will pay $29.3m to the newly formed European Media and Information Fund in a bid to combat fake news, the company said on Wednesday. The contribution comes amid criticism that the tech giant is not doing enough to debunk online disinformation. The pandemic and the US election prompted a spike in misinformation last year, [...]
Coronavirus latest updates: EU boosts vaccine supply; Norway halts Astrazeneca jab; London R rate rises March 26, 2021 EU boosts production of Covid vaccines The European Medicines Agency announced this afternoon that it has approved the use of two European factories to scale up the EU’s vaccine supply. The Halix factory in the Netherlands has been cleared to produce doses of the Astrazeneca vaccine for the EU, while another in Marburg in Germany [...]
EU approves use of Netherlands factory to produce Astrazeneca vaccine March 26, 2021 The EU medicines regulator has approved the use of a factory in the Netherlands for the production of Covid vaccines for Europe, despite the fact that it is currently being used to make jabs for the UK. The European Medicines Agency (EMA) said in statement it had cleared the Halix production site in the Netherlands [...]
Johnson says UK is ‘on the side of openness’ following EU vaccine row March 25, 2021 Prime Minister Boris Johnson today said that Britain is “on the side of openness” and that did he not want to see restrictions on the exchange of Covid-19 vaccines with the European Union. Yesterday the EU tightened its oversight of coronavirus vaccine exports, giving it greater scope to block shipments to countries with higher inoculation [...]