Asia-West / Mid-East / North-Africa

U.S. and European Union authorities are considering whether booster shots are needed for specific risk groups.

Drug prices are steadily rising in Russia due to the weak rouble and the ever-growing prices for raw materials.

The rapid spread of the Delta variant has sent vaccination rates in Israel back up as new infections have risen over the past month from single digits to around 450 a day.

She can be cured with Zolgensma — but it’s the most expensive life-saving drug in the world, costing Dh8 million.

According to a report, the Health Ministry of Israel will destroy at least 800,000 expiring Coronavirus vaccine doses if no buyers are found for them in the next two weeks.

Saudi Arabia will start inoculating young people aged 12 to 18 against COVID-19 with the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine after it was approved by the Saudi Food and Drug Authority.

Iran, with a population of 83 million, has recorded 83,588 deaths from coronavirus, the highest toll in the Middle East.

The Russian government late last year granted Russian drugmaker Pharmasyntez a compulsory licence for one year to manufacture the drug under a different name without Gilead's permission.

After being developed, authorized, and administered at breakneck speed, it is now being rolled out in 39 countries and due to be rolled out in 27 more — with a combined population of more than 3.2 billion people.

Russia said in March it had registered the world’s first vaccine for animals against COVID-19 after tests showed it generated antibodies against the coronavirus in dogs, cats, foxes and mink.

The country reported just 12 new virus cases on Saturday, down from a daily peak of more than 10,000 in January.

Transforming the site of what once was a Soviet-era car factory into a state-of-the-art facility churning out Russia's COVID-19 vaccine Sputnik V was the easy bit.

It is the sixth vaccine Bahrain has authorized. It has previously authorized China's Sinopharm, Pfizer and BioNTech's vaccine, AstraZeneca's COVISHIELD, the J&J vaccine, and Sputnik.

One of its main potential uses is as a vaccine that can be shipped to a country in the grip of an acute outbreak which needs to be subdued quickly.