GlaxoSmithKline plc (LSE/NYSE: GSK) and CureVac N.V. (Nasdaq: CVAC) announced a new €150m collaboration, building on their existing relationship, to jointly develop next generation mRNA vaccines for COVID-19 with the potential for a multi-valent approach to address multiple emerging variants in one vaccine.

The primary analysis of the Phase III clinical trials from the UK, Brazil and South Africa, published as a preprint in The Lancet confirmed COVID-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca is safe and effective at preventing COVID-19, with no severe cases and no hospitalisations, more than 22 days after the first dose.

The Gamaleya National Research Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation and the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF, Russia's sovereign wealth fund) announce that The Lancet, one of the world's oldest and most respected medical journals, has published interim results of a Phase III clinical trial of Sputnik V, confirming the vaccine's high efficacy and safety. Sputnik V, which is based on a well-studied human adenoviral vectors platform, is the world's first registered vaccine against coronavirus.

In a joint press briefing today together with German Health Minister Jens Spahn, Minister-President of North Rhine-Westphalia, Armin Laschet, and Chief Executive Officer of CureVac N.V., Franz-Werner Haas, Member of the Board of Management, Bayer AG and President of the Bayer’s Pharmaceuticals Division, Stefan Oelrich, made the following statement:

AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine has been recommended for conditional marketing authorisation (CMA) in the European Union (EU) for active immunisation to prevent COVID-19 caused by SARS-CoV-2, in individuals 18 years of age and older.

Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) and BioNTech SE (Nasdaq: BNTX) announced results from in vitro neutralization studies of sera from individuals vaccinated with the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. The sera neutralized SARS-CoV-2 with key mutations present in the United Kingdom (U.K.) and South Africa variants, as measured by studies conducted by Pfizer and the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB).

Valneva SE, a specialty vaccine company focused on prevention of infectious diseases with significant unmet medical need, today announced it has commenced production of its inactivated, adjuvanted COVID-19 vaccine candidate in parallel to the ongoing clinical studies, in order to optimize the timeline for potential deliveries of the vaccine. The Phase 1/2 clinical study is now fully enrolled and is expected to report initial results in April 2021.