The Catalan pharmaceutical company Hipra will begin animal trials next year of the prototype vaccines it has developed against African swine fever (ASF), although the treatment will not be available to eradicate the current outbreak of the virus detected in Catalonia. The company has been researching the virus since 2019 and has been leading a European project to develop an ASF vaccine for the past two years. Marta Sitjà, research director of Hipra's animal health division, admits that this virus, in addition to its virulence, is also "very complex" because it has up to 150 proteins, and blocking just one is not enough to prevent it from continuing to infect pigs. However, Hipra cannot yet give a date for when the ASF vaccine will reach the market. "We are still far from that," says Sitjà, who emphasizes that in the face of the current crisis, measures must be taken to eradicate the virus.

It's been a little less than three months since a pioneering ruling issued in Barcelona recognized the blood clots suffered by a teacher after being vaccinated against COVID with AstraZeneca doses as an occupational accident. Now, the Social Court No. 3 of Burgos has issued a very similar ruling, but with one relevant difference: in this case, the affected woman had received a first dose of AstraZeneca and two of Pfizer.

October is the new date set by the Girona-based company Hipra to obtain authorisation for its vaccine against covid-19. The company's R&D director, Èlia Torroella, had said that they expected to receive the European Medicines Agency's (EMA) approval between June and July, but they have now been asked for more data. "The situation has been changing and different requirements have been made at different times, and in our case they have asked us to provide more information. We know what they want, we will provide it, and we are convinced that the vaccine will be part of vaccination plans in the autumn," Torroella emphasised, in reference to the Ministry of Health's plans to start administering the fourth dose to the over 60 and to healthcare personnel after the summer.

The Girona-based pharmaceutical company Hipra can now start the third phase trials of its vaccine against covid-19. After reviewing the results of Phase 2b, the Spanish Agency for Medicines and Health Products (AEMPS) has approved a step forward in its research. In this third stage, the new serum will be tested on 3,000 volunteers over 16 years of age, with the collaboration of some twenty hospitals in Spain, Portugal and Italy. The aim is to test whether the new drug is safe and effective as a booster dose in people who have received other vaccines, and they will be followed up medically for 52 weeks. Once it is finished, and if it receives the endorsement of the health authorities, the company will be able to market it.

Pharmaceutical company Hipra, based in Girona, has developed a vaccines which offers "good results and resistance" against the Omicron variant –the dominant variant in Catalonia– according to the Spanish Minister of Science and Innovation, Diana Morant, during a visit to the company in Amer (Selva). The company has been working for months on a new vaccine and expects to start its third phase of clinical trials midway through this month, if it receives the endorsement of the Spanish Agency for Medicines and Health Products (AEMPS). At this stage it would be tested on 3,000 volunteers, with the collaboration of 15 hospitals in Spain and "other countries," according to Morant.

The Catalan vaccine against covid-19 has taken a step forward. The Spanish Agency for Medicines and Health Products has authorised phase 2 of clinical trials for Hipra's vaccine against covid-19, as explained by the president of the Spanish government, Pedro Sánchez. This phase will be carried out in ten hospitals throughout Spain and will have more than 1,000 volunteers. In addition, the company, which is based in Amer (Girona) will receive a €15m grant from the Spanish government.

Companies Pfizer and BioNTech have announced this Monday that their vaccine against covid is safe for children, specifically 5 to 11-year-olds, and they plan to ask the European and United States health authorities for the necessary approval to be able to use it as soon as possible. This comes after the first results of vaccine trials with children carried out by the multinationals. As the companies have explained, the tests have shown a strong response by neutralising antibodies, after receiving two doses 21 days apart.

The Public Health Commission, made up of the Ministry of Health and the autonomous communities, has approved this Tuesday the administration of a third dose of the vaccine against the coronavirus to people with severe immunosuppression. These are cases in which there is a high risk of an inadequate immune response in the conventional vaccination schedule. Specifically, this additional dose is designed to complete the vaccination schedule for people with solid organ transplants, recipients of hematopoietic stem cell transplants and those who are being treated with anti-CD20 drugs.

In October, at the latest in November, it will be known whether the Catalan vaccine against covid-19, promoted by the company Hipra, is safe and immunogenic, i.e. it does not cause serious side effects and stimulates the immune response. This week, the first doses of the PHH-1V vaccine (the name under which the Girona-based company has presented its prototype to the Ministry of Health) have begun to be inoculated and, so far, six people have already received it, three at the Josep Trueta Hospital in Girona and three at the Hospital Clínic in Barcelona. A fortnight ago, the Spanish Agency for Medicines and Health Products authorised Hipra to begin clinical trials in humans, and the researchers have decided to start with a sample of 30 people. Only if the promising pre-clinical results are confirmed on a small scale will it be possible to extend the study to hundreds of people, and even then it will be a year before the final conclusions of this first clinical step can be drawn. In practice, however, the results will be almost immediate: within two to three months there will be enough evidence for scientists and authorities to consider whether to continue or discontinue the study.

Vaccination will boost the tourist season. The ambassadors of the 27 European Union governments agreed on Wednesday to reopen external borders to fully vaccinated tourists or travellers. The measure is especially designed for third countries such as the United States or the United Kingdom, where vaccination is already advanced and has been carried out with drugs that have also been approved by the European Union. Therefore, these tourists will be allowed entry as long as they have received the full course of immunisation 14 days before the trip (ie, with two doses in most cases).

Vaccination is advancing and, with it, the recovery, timidly, of some routines that had been put aside with the coronavirus. Health workers, elderly people, cancer patients and immunocompromised patients are some of the groups that have already been vaccinated. We talked to them to find out how it has changed their daily lives.

The litigation between the European Commission and AstraZeneca came to court in Brussels on Wednesday. At the preliminary hearing, the Commission's lawyers have asked the judge for injunctions to force the drugmaker to hand over production from factories in Belgium, the Netherlands and the UK, arguing that "every day counts". It is the latest chapter in the bitter dispute, in which European authorities are demanding that the Anglo-Swedish company honour its contract, as it had committed to making 300 million doses of the vaccine available to European states during the first half of the year. AstraZeneca has said that, due to production problems, it will only be able to deliver 100 million. The case is being heard in an emergency procedure. The next hearing is set for May 26.

"Every dose counts. Every dose saves lives." With this message, Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides announced on Monday that the European Union has definitively started legal proceedings against Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca. Last week the European Commission sounded out European governments to take the initiative, and after obtaining their support the EU executive has decided to file the complaint.

Marred by constant distribution breaches, changes in age criteria and now also dogged by its link to rare cases of thrombosis, the Oxford/AstraZeneca (UK) vaccine was approved for use on 29 January 2021 and the UK had already licensed it in December. The technology it uses - genetically modified attenuated virus, in this case chimpanzee adenovirus - has previously been used to produce vaccines against Ebola and Zika. It is the same mechanism of action as the Janssen and Russian Sputnik V vaccines. It is licensed in a dozen countries, although some have stopped vaccination after the cases of thrombosis.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) is investigating a possible link between four cases of severe thrombosis and the Janssen vaccine. The regulator informed of this action on Friday as part of the conclusions of this week's expert committee meeting, which was primarily aimed at looking into rare cases of thrombosis that have occurred after receiving AstraZeneca's vaccine. "At the moment it is not clear that there is a causal association between the Janssen vaccine and these cases," the statement said.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has concluded that thrombi may be a side effect of the AstraZeneca vaccine in very rare cases and recommends continuing with the vaccination, as it argues that the benefits outweigh the risks. However, some countries have changed their vaccination schedule, including Spain, which will now vaccinate only the over-60s with AstraZeneca. This rare clotting disorder occurs in one case per 300,000 inhabitants "and in Europe there are 25 million people who have received the vaccine," says Carlos Molina, head of the stroke unit of the Hospital de la Vall d'Hebron, who believes that this does not justify stopping the vaccination campaign. "I think it is a decision that does not conform to scientific arguments that support the non-vaccination of a certain population group. A few weeks ago it was not possible to vaccinate those over 55 years and now only those over 60 years, there is no robust scientific justification. The benefit of the vaccine is far above the potential risk," says this doctor. We have spoken with him to clarify the doubts and fears that the AstraZeneca vaccine has generated.

New change in the vaccination protocols with AstraZeneca in Spain after the latest decision by the European Medicines Agency (EMA). The Ministry of Health and most of the communities have decided to vaccinate only people over 60 with the doses developed by the Oxford laboratory after the cases linked to thrombi in younger people, as ARA has learned. This is the same decision taken by Germany at the end of March, and represents a reversal of the initial criterion. France and Belgium also only administer the Anglo-Swedish preparation to people over the age of 55.

AstraZeneca's vaccine can cause thrombosis as a "very rare" side effect. After weeks of ups and downs, contradictory information and policies on the alleged link between the doses developed by Oxford University and some cases of thrombosis detected in different countries, this is the conclusion of the European Medicines Agency (EMA), which has given another press conference after one of its experts said in an interview with Italian newspaper Il Messaggero that there is a link between AstraZeneca's coronavirus vaccine and cases of thrombosis. Even so, the regulator continues to strongly defend the use of this drug.

Pedro Sánchez has kicked off the second quarter of 2021 with the announcement of millions of coronavirus vaccines to overturn the failure to meet the objectives set for the end of March, when it was expected that 80% of people over 80 years would be vaccinated, a promise that has not been fulfilled in Catalonia, for example.

Josefa Perez was the first Catalan woman to receive the first dose of the vaccine against covid-19 on December 27 last year. 97 days later, a person between 60 and 65 years old received the first dose this Saturday, which was the one that made a million. Already 1,010,874 first doses have been administered in Catalonia, representing 13% of the population. But the second doses do not reach half a million: 443,577 have been used, so that only 5.8% of the population has the full guideline. Although the Health department has administered doses of AstraZeneca in the middle of Easter -14,800 this Saturday and plans to use 12,800 this Sunday-, vaccination will still be slow over the next few weeks for the second doses and the lack of concreteness of the pharmaceutical in deliveries.