Pfizer Inc

Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE have asked U.S. regulators to authorize emergency use of their COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 5 to 11, a group for whom no shot is currently allowed, Pfizer said on Oct. 7.

The U.S. drug regulator on Aug. 23 granted full approval to the Pfizer Inc/BioNTech SE COVID-19 vaccine - the first to secure such Food and Drug Administration validation - prompting President Joe Biden to make a fresh pitch to vaccine skeptics to get the shot to fight the relentless pandemic.

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Canadian health officials said on Monday they would stop offering AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine to people under age 55 and require a new analysis of the shot's benefits and risks based on age and gender.

Israelis began voting on Tuesday in a fourth election in two years, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hoping a world-beating COVID-19 vaccine rollout will win him another term.

With coronavirus precautions at polling booths across the country - and ballots at the airport for quarantined Israelis coming home to vote - opinion polls show the race yet again too close to call.

Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE have started an international study with 4,000 volunteers to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of their COVID-19 vaccine in healthy pregnant women, the companies said on Thursday.

Pfizer Inc said on Friday it had withdrawn an application for emergency-use authorisation of its COVID-19 vaccine in India, after failing to meet the drug regulator's demand for a local safety and immunogenicity study.

Russia's sovereign wealth fund RDIF has filed for registration of the Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine in the European Union and expects it to be reviewed in February, as Moscow seeks to speed up its availability worldwide.

The Vatican told Roman Catholics on Monday that it was morally acceptable to use COVID-19 vaccines even if their production employed cell lines drawn from tissues of aborted foetuses.

A note from the Vatican's doctrinal congregation, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, said the use of such vaccines was permitted as long as there were no alternatives.

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence received his COVID-19 vaccine live on television on Friday, seeking to shore up public support for vaccinations after U.S. deaths from the coronavirus topped 3,000 for a third straight day.

U.S. coronavirus cases crossed the 15 million mark on Tuesday as regulators moved a step closer to approving a COVID-19 vaccine and Britain started inoculating people, offering hope of slowing a pandemic that killed 15,000 Americans in the last week alone.