The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) invites civil society organisations, private companies and individuals from the European Union and the United Kingdom to submit their projects for its unique Civil Solidarity Prize, launched in July as a special, one-off replacement for its flagship annual Civil Society Prize. The EESC aims to reward as many as 29…
AstraZeneca issued a press release announcing that clinical trials for their coronavirus vaccine, AZD1222, under development resumed last week in the UK. The vaccine AZD1222 was co-invented by the University of Oxford and its spin-off company, Vaccitech. It uses a replication-deficient chimpanzee viral vector based on a weakened version of a common cold virus (adenovirus)…
Common definitions, health criteria and methodologies are key to effectively fighting the ongoing pandemic and its economic consequences in the EU, MEPs say. Worried by the recent increase in positive COVID-19 cases across Europe, MEPs deplore that member states have not learned the lessons from the beginning of the crisis and have yet again taken…
Brussels Airport complies with the recommendations by ICAO and the protocol issued by EASA/ECDC to ensure that it has Airport Health Accreditation. The Airport makes every effort to ensure that their facilities are hygienic and safe to welcome passengers. The combination of the various health safety measures allows them to meet the highest standards, and to satisfy…
On Friday, a second contract with a pharmaceutical company entered into force following the contact’s formal signature between Sanofi-GSK and the Commission. The contract will allow all EU Member States to purchase up to 300 million doses of the Sanofi-GSK vaccine. Moreover, Member States may donate reserved doses to lower- and middle-income countries. Sanofi and GSK…
The European Parliament has called for the EU to be more self-sufficient when it comes to medicines and medical equipment so that affordable treatments are available at any time. Parliament addresses the root causes of recent medicine shortages in a resolution, adopted by 663 votes to 23 and 10 abstentions. MEPs call for an increased…
The EPP Group says it wants to relieve Europe’s dependence on third countries such as India and China when producing medicines. It wants to make stockpiling of certain medicines in Europe compulsory through a sort of European Emergency Pharmacy. Nathalie Colin-Oesterlé MEP, who drafted a parliamentary report to be voted on today in Parliament, and…
The pandemic caused by the coronavirus crisis has forced countries to join forces to overcome the consequences. This is especially true for countries with small budgets which have already had financial problems. The EU has joined forces and extended a helping hand to non-member countries, including Ukraine. Financial assistance, though, is not only intended to…
The Test Centre at Brussels Airport for COVID-19 will open on Monday 14 September. At this Test Centre, passengers can get a COVID-19 test on site at the airport. The Test Centre will also be open to those who are not travelling but need to have a test taken for contact tracing purposes. From 14th of…
Low- and middle-income countries could soon leapfrog high-income countries in their adoption of new AI-enabled technologies in health, suggests a report led by the Novartis Foundation and Microsoft. Technologies such as mobile phone trading platforms, e-banking, e-commerce, and even blockchain applications have often been adopted faster and more comprehensively in low- and middle-income countries than…
