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Health

EXCLUSIVE S.Korea in talks with mRNA vaccine makers to make up to 1 bln doses -govt official

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South Korean senior citizens receive their first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine at a vaccination centre in Seoul, South Korea April 1, 2021. Chung Sung-Jun/Pool via REUTERS

SEOUL, July 5 (Reuters) – South Korea is in talks with mRNA vaccine makers including Pfizer (PFE.N) and Moderna (MRNA.O) to produce COVID-19 shots in the country and is ready to offer the capacity to make up to 1 billion doses immediately, a senior government official said.

The plan, if agreed, would help ease tight global supply of COVID-19 vaccines, particularly in Asia which lags North America and Europe in vaccine rollouts, and put South Korea a step closer to its ambition to become a major vaccine manufacturing centre.

South Korea already has deals to locally produce three coronavirus vaccines developed by AstraZeneca (AZN.L)/Oxford University, Novavax (NVAX.O), and Russia. It also has a vaccine bottling and packaging deal with Moderna.

“We’ve been holding frequent talks with big pharmaceutical companies to produce mRNA vaccines,” Lee Kang-ho, director general for the global vaccine hub committee under South Korea’s health ministry, told Reuters in an interview.

“There are only a few mRNA vaccine developers – Pfizer, Moderna, CureVac and BioNTech. Thus there’s a limit to how much they can produce to meet global demand… South Korea is keen to help by offering its facilities and skilled human resources,” Lee said.

It’s not immediately clear how advanced these talks are and whether and when a deal will be agreed.

BioNTech (22UAy.DE) declined to comment, Moderna and CureVac (5CV.DE) did not reply to Reuters’ requests for comments.

A Pfizer spokesperson said the company is making efforts to enhance its COVID-19 vaccine supply chain but added “we do not have anything specific to announce at this time.”

Lee declined to name local vaccine makers which have the capacity to produce mRNA vaccines immediately, but a government source said they include Hanmi Pharmaceuticals Co Ltd (128940.KS) and Quratis Co Ltd.

Hanmi confirmed that it has a big capacity reserved for Sanofi’s (SASY.PA) diabetes drug and it can be used for COVID-19 vaccine production as the Sanofi project has stalled.

“We happen to have this facility available right now because our clinical trial (with Sanofi) was discontinued in the middle of last year,” Kim Soo-jin, senior vice president of Hanmi, told Reuters.

“It’s very timely that we have a fully ready, GMP, state-of-the-art facility available,” she said, referring to good manufacturing practice.

Quratis, which makes a tuberculosis vaccine, said its new factory built last year can now be used for mRNA vaccine production.

Shares in Hanmi erased early losses and rose nearly 4% on Monday after the Reuters report.

COLLABORATION WITH WHO

South Korea has stepped up its effort to produce more vaccines since U.S. President Joe Biden in May agreed with South Korean President Moon Jae-in on a comprehensive partnership on COVID-19 vaccines. read more

Lee said his team is having frequent video conference calls with the vaccine makers and the World Health Organization (WHO).

WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic told Reuters the organisation is “talking with South Korea and other countries,” but did not elaborate.

The WHO said last month it will set up a hub in South Africa to manufacture mRNA vaccines within 9-12 months that will give companies from poor and middle-income countries the know-how and licenses to produce COVID-19 vaccines. read more

Lee said mRNA vaccine makers may be reluctant to share their technology, but they can take advantage of South Korea’s raw material suppliers to address a global shortage of such ingredients as lipids, nucleotides and capping reagents.

“They’re capable of manufacturing and developing such raw materials to help vaccine makers… and the South Korean government is committed to provide all necessary support including financial and administrative aid.”

Lee said the country also has a capacity for at least another 500 million doses of fill-and-finish vaccines apart from the deal Moderna announced with Samsung BioLogics (207940.KS) in May.

Reporting by Sangmi Cha in Seoul; Additional reporting by Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva, Michael Erman in New York and Ludwig Burger in Frankfurt; Editing by Miyoung Kim and Raju Gopalakrishnan

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World

Cardinal among 10 indicted by Vatican for financial crimes

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  • Pope approved move against cardinal, who says he is innocent
  • Former head of Vatican Financial Intelligence denies charges
  • Becciu most senior Vatican official charged with financial crime
  • Trial to start July 27

VATICAN CITY, July 3 (Reuters) – A prominent Italian cardinal was among 10 people sent to trial in the Vatican on Saturday charged with financial crimes including embezzlement, money laundering, fraud, extortion and abuse of office.

Cardinal Angelo Becciu, formerly a senior official in the Vatican administration, as well as two top officials at the Vatican’s Financial Intelligence Unit will go on trial on July 27 over a multi-million euro scandal involving the Vatican’s purchase of a building in one of London’s smartest districts.

The trial will inevitably bring a swirl of media interest to the tiny city-state surrounded by Rome, and appears to underscore Pope Francis’ determination to cure the rot in Vatican finances, even if it involves messy public hearings.

Becciu, 73, whom the pope fired from his senior clerical post last year for alleged nepotism, and who has always maintained his innocence during a two-year investigation, becomes the most senior Vatican official to be charged with financial crimes.

The pope personally gave the required approval last week for Becciu to be indicted, according to a 487-page indictment request seen by Reuters. The Vatican announced the indictments in a two-page statement.

The charges against Becciu include embezzlement and abuse of office. An Italian woman who worked for him was charged with embezzlement and the cardinal’s former secretary, a priest, was accused of extortion.

Becciu said in a statement that he was a victim of a “machination” and reaffirmed his “absolute innocence”.

Two Italian brokers, Gianluigi Torzi and Raffaele Mincione, were charged with embezzlement, fraud and money laundering. Torzi, for whom Italian magistrates issued an arrest warrant in April, was also charged with extortion.

There was no immediate response to attempts to reach their lawyers, but both men have consistently denied wrongdoing.

Four companies associated with individual defendants, two in Switzerland, one in the United States and one in Slovenia, were also indicted, according to the document.

POLICE RAID

The investigation into the purchase of the building became public on Oct. 1, 2019, when Vatican police raided the offices of the Secretariat of State, the administrative heart of the Catholic Church, and those of the Vatican’s Financial Information Authority (AIF).

The then-president of the AIF, Rene Bruelhart, a 48-year-old Swiss, and AIF’s former Italian director, Tommaso Di Ruzza, 46, were charged with abuse of office for allegedly failing to adequately protect the Vatican’s interests and giving Torzi what the indictment request called an “undue advantage”.

Di Ruzza was also accused of embezzlement related to alleged inappropriate use of his official credit card, and of divulging confidential information.

Bruelhart said in a text message that he had “always carried out my functions and duties with correctness” and that “the truth about my innocence will emerge.”

Di Ruzza did not immediately respond to a voicemail requesting comment.

In 2014, the Secretariat of State invested more than 200 million euros, much of it from contributions from the faithful, in a fund run by Mincione, securing about 45% of a commercial and residential building at 60 Sloane Avenue in London’s South Kensington district.

The indictment request said Mincione had tried to deceive the Vatican, which in 2018 tried to end the relationship.

It turned to Torzi for help in buying up the rest of the building, but later accused him of extortion.

‘ENORMOUS LOSSES’

At the time, Becciu was in the last year of his post as deputy secretary of state for general affairs, a powerful administrative position that handles hundreds of millions of euros.

All told, the Secretariat of State sank more than 350 million euros into the investment, according to Vatican media, and suffered what Cardinal George Pell, the former Vatican treasurer, told Reuters last year were “enormous losses”.

Torzi was arrested in the Vatican in June 2020, and spent a week in custody.

According to the indictment request, Becciu is charged with five counts of embezzlement, two of abuse of office, and one count of inducing a witness to perjury. About 75 pages of the document are dedicated to Becciu.

It says Becciu tried to “heavily deflect” the inquiry into Vatican investments, including the London building, and tried to discredit the investigating magistrates via the Italian media.

Becciu continued to have influence over money transfers at the Secretariat even after he left the post, the document said.

The main charges against Becciu involve the alleged funnelling of money and contracts to companies or charitable organisations controlled by his brothers on their native island of Sardinia.

Another Sardinian, Cecilia Maronga, 40, who worked for Becciu, was charged with embezzlement. Her cellphone was not connected.

The indictment request said she had received about 575,000 euros from the Secretariat of State in 2018-2019.

She has said on Italian television that the money, sent to her company in Slovenia, was to ransom kidnapped missionaries in Africa. But the indictment request said much of it was used for “personal benefit”, including the purchase of luxury goods.

Reporting by Philip Pullella; Editing by Kevin Liffey

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World

France probes fashion retailers for concealing ‘crimes against humanity’ in Xinjiang

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Customers enter a Zara shop in Nantes as non-essential business re-open after closing down for months, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in France, May 19, 2021. REUTERS/Stephane Mahe/File Photo

PARIS, July 1 (Reuters) – French prosecutors have opened an investigation into four fashion retailers suspected of concealing “crimes against humanity” in China’s Xinjiang region, a judicial source said on Thursday.

The procedure is linked to accusations against China over its treatment of minority Muslim Uyghurs in the region, including the use of forced labour, the source said.

China denies all accusations of abuse in the region.

The source told Reuters Uniqlo France, a unit of Japan’s Fast Retailing (9983.T), Zara owner Inditex (ITX.MC), France’s SMCP (SMCP.PA) and Skechers (SKX.N) were the subject of the investigation, confirming a report by French media website Mediapart.

“An investigation has been opened by the crimes against humanity unit within the antiterrorism prosecutor’s office following the filing of a complaint,” the source said.

France has a Central Office to Fight Crimes against Humanity, Genocide and War Crimes, founded in 2013.

Inditex said it rejected the claims in the legal complaint, adding that it conducted rigorous traceability controls and would fully cooperate with the French investigation.

“At Inditex, we have zero tolerance for all forms of forced labour and have established policies and procedures to ensure this practice does not take place in our supply chain,” the company said in a statement.

SMCP said it would cooperate with the French authorities to prove the allegations false.

“SMCP works with suppliers located all over the world and maintains that it does not have direct suppliers in the region mentioned in the press,” SMCP said, adding that it regularly audited its suppliers.

Fast Retailing said in a statement from Tokyo that it had not been contacted by French authorities and that none of its production partners are located in Xinjiang.

“If and when notified, we will cooperate fully with the investigation to reaffirm there is no forced labour in our supply chains,” it said.

The company lost an appeal with United States Customs in May after a shipment of Uniqlo men’s shirts were impounded because of suspected violations of a ban on Xinjiang cotton. read more

Skechers said it does not comment on pending litigation. It referred Reuters to a March 2021 statement in which it said it maintained a strict supplier code of conduct.

Two nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) filed a complaint in France in early April against multinationals for concealment of forced labour and crimes against humanity.

United Nations experts and rights groups estimate over a million people, mainly Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities, have been detained in recent years in a vast system of camps in China’s western Xinjiang region.

Many former inmates have said they were subject to ideological training and abuse. Rights groups say the camps have been used as a source of low-paid and coercive labour.

China initially denied the camps existed, but has since said they are vocational centres designed to combat extremism. In late 2019, China said all people in the camps had “graduated.”

Several Western brands including H&M (HMb.ST), Burberry (BRBY.L) and Nike (NKE.N) have been hit by consumer boycotts in China after raising concerns about reports of forced labour in Xinjiang. read more

In March, the United States, the European Union, Britain and Canada imposed sanctions on Chinese officials, citing human rights abuses in Xinjiang. Beijing retaliated immediately with its own punitive measures. read more

Human Rights Watch this year documented what it said could constitute crimes against humanity being committed in Xinjiang.

Reporting by Benoit Van Overstraeten in Paris
Additional reporting by Richard Lough in Paris, Jesus Aguado in Madrid and Rocky Swift in Tokyo.
Editing by Kirsten Donovan and Matthew Lewis

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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World

Germany could ease travel curbs as Delta variant takes over

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People walk past a colonnade on Museum Island during warm temperatures, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, in Berlin, Germany May 30, 2021. REUTERS/Annegret Hilse

BERLIN, July 1 (Reuters) – Germany expects the Delta variant of COVID-19 to account for up to 80% of infections this month and could ease travel restrictions from countries like Portugal and Britain where it already dominates, its health minister said on Thursday.

Jens Spahn told a news conference that Germany could reduce the current 14-day quarantine requirement that it imposes on travellers from countries with high levels of the Delta variant once it is sure that vaccinated people are protected.

Spahn said the move could happen soon, without specifying.

Germany’s STIKO vaccination commission said later on Thursday that UK studies show that two vaccines doses seem to provide as much protection against the Delta variant as against other COVID-19 variants. read more

Spahn reiterated the importance of speeding up vaccinations, noting that 37% of Germany’s population has now received two shots, while 55% has had a first dose.

About half of German coronavirus cases are currently Delta variant and Spahn said it will dominate later this month.

Germany last week declared Portugal and Russia to be “virus-variant zones”, meaning only German residents can enter the country from those countries and still face a mandatory two-week quarantine even if they are fully vaccinated or test negative.

That had prompted German tourists there to rush home and airlines to cancel flights.

Germany also classifies Britain as such a “virus variant” zone. Chancellor Angela Merkel is due to discuss travel restrictions when she meets British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Friday.

Spahn suggested these countries could be shifted to a designation as risk areas, meaning people can travel if they are fully vaccinated or have recovered from COVID-19, or be released from quarantine after five days if they test negative.

The European Commission said on Tuesday that Germany should not impose a travel ban on Portugal but limit itself to imposing testing and quarantine requirements to be in line with the European Union approach meant to ease summer travel.

Reporting by Emma Thomasson and Thomas Escritt; Editing by Maria Sheahan and Catherine Evans

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Business

CureVac COVID-19 vaccine records only 48% efficacy in final trial readout

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A dose of CureVac vaccine or a placebo is seen during a study by the German biotech firm CureVac as part of a testing for a new vaccine against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Brussels, Belgium March 2, 2021. REUTERS/Yves Herman

June 30 (Reuters) – CureVac (5CV.DE) said its COVID-19 vaccine was 48% effective in the final analysis of its pivotal mass trial, only marginally better than the 47% reported after an initial read-out two weeks ago.

The German biotech firm said that efficacy, measured by preventing symptomatic disease, was slightly better at 53% when excluding trial participants older than 60 years, an age group that is by far the most severely affected.

CureVac said on June 16 its COVID-19 vaccine, known as CVnCoV, proved only 47% effective in an initial trial read-out and that new variants had proved a headwind, denting investor confidence in its ability to take on rival shots.

That wiped billions of euros from its market value.

Wednesday’s news sent U.S.-listed shares of the company 10.2% lower to $66 after the bell.

Late-stage trials of BioNTech/Pfizer (22UAy.DE), (PFE.N) and Moderna (MRNA.O) vaccines, which like CureVac’s are based on mRNA technology, had efficacy rates of well above 90% across all age groups but took place when the original version of the coronavirus was dominant.

Data on their products have, however, so far suggested only somewhat weaker protection against new variants.

The CureVac study, which involved about 40,000 adult volunteers in Europe and Latin America, showed that efficacy was 77% in the age group below 60 years of age when considering only moderate to severe symptoms and excluding mild cases.

CureVac said it had sent the data to the European Medicines Agency (EMA) as part of an ongoing dialogue with the EU drugs regulator.

CureVac previously said that the regulatory hurdle was 50% efficacy in principle but that various other considerations would come into play.

“In this final analysis, CVnCoV demonstrates a strong public health value in fully protecting study participants in the age group of 18 to 60 against hospitalization and death and 77% against moderate and severe disease – an efficacy profile, which we believe will be an important contribution to help manage the COVID-19 pandemic and the dynamic variant spread,” said Chief Executive Officer Franz-Werner Haas.

CureVac had registered 228 infections overall for the final analysis, after 134 cases for the interim analysis.

Public health representatives across the globe are pushing for a fast deployment of available vaccines to counter highly contagious mutations of COVID-19 such as the Delta variant that first emerged in India.

The EMA has said it would not impose a 50% efficacy threshold for vaccines and that full trial data was necessary for it to make a sound assessment on the benefits and risks of a shot. read more

Under CureVac’s only major supply deal for the product tested in the trial, the European Union secured up to 405 million doses of the vaccine in November, of which 180 million are optional.

In a bet on CureVac’s technology, Britain placed a conditional 50 million dose order in February on yet-to-be-developed vaccines that build on the product tested in the trial. read more

CureVac had lined up a network of manufacturing partners including Celonic Group of Switzerland, Novartis (NOVN.S), Bayer (BAYGn.DE), Fareva, Wacker (WCHG.DE) and Rentschler Biopharma SE.

($1 = 0.8377 euros)

Reporting by Ludwig Burger, Editing by Rosalba O’Brien

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