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As per the analysts and healthcare investors, it is being predicted that drug-makers Pfizer Inc, Moderna Inc, BioNTech will reap billions of dollars from the Covid-19 booster shots, in the annual sales of flu vaccine markets that could rival $6 billion in a year. For many months these drug-maker companies have been saying, that people who are vaccinated will need an extra dose of vaccine to keep the protection from new variants of the Corona Virus. A list of countries like Chile, Germany, and Israel has already decided to give a booster dose to their older citizens and people with a weak immune system especially, when a fast spread of delta variant has become a sign of concern. The United Kingdom and the United States are also preparing to follow the same pattern.  Keeping this in mind Pfizer with its German partner BioNTech, and Moderna have already locked up over $60 billion in sales of vaccine shots for the years 2021 and 2022. This agreement consist supply of the first two doses of vaccine and well as billions of dollars in potential boosters for the wealthy nations. Source: healthworld.com

The Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) has granted approval for trials that will mix two different Covid vaccines — Covishield by Serum Institute of India and Covaxin by Bharat Biotech. The study will be conducted by Christian Medical College, Vellore. The Subject Expert Committee (SEC) of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) had a week ago recommended granting a nod for the mix-and-match trial. Combination of the two different vaccines had not been allowed in the country so far as no such trials were conducted and no data was available regarding the safety and efficacy of such combinations. This will be the first-of-its-kind study in the country and will involve 300 participants. The approval for the study follows an ICMR study in Uttar Pradesh, where 18 people were given two different doses of the Covid-19 vaccine by mistake in May. They had received Covishield as their first dose and were administered Covaxin as the second dose after six weeks. According to the ICMR study, the vaccine combination was safe and there were no adverse reactions. Also, those who got a mixed dosage of the vaccines demonstrated better immunogenicity that those who had got the same vaccine doses. According to the health ministry, the monthly production of Covaxin was projected to go up to 58 million doses per month, while Covishield production was expected to reach 120 million doses a month from September. SII also has plans to make 300 million doses of the Sputnik vaccine. There are similar studies being conducted globally to assess the safety and efficacy of combining two different vaccines and to see if combination of vaccines worked better that two doses of the same vaccine. Russia Direct Investment Fund has initiated partnerships with other vaccine producers to conduct joint studies of a combination of the first component of Sputnik V with foreign vaccines. They have completed a study of combining the first shot of Sputnik V vaccine with the AstraZeneca-Oxford University vaccine and the interim analysis on immunogenicity demonstrated high safety. There are studies of single dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine combined with the mRNA vaccines from Pfizer or Moderna as second doses and this was found to be effective. Source: FE Bureau

After contract settlements and transactions, HGS will divest its healthcare business including client contracts, assets, and employees to Baring PE Asia. Hinduja Global Solutions (HGS), the business process management arm of the Hinduja Group, is divesting its health care services business to funds affiliated with Baring Private Equity Asia (BPEA). The Hinduja Group has signed definitive agreements with BPEA, one of the largest private alternative investment firms in Asia, for the same. “The transaction based on enterprise value of $1,200 million, subject to closing adjustments, is expected to complete within 90 days, subject to shareholder and other regulatory approvals,” HGS said in a release. After the completion of the transaction, HGS will transfer all client contracts, employees, and assets, including infrastructure related to the healthcare services business. HGS’ healthcare services business supports payer, providers, laboratories, durable medical equipment firms and pharmaceutical companies with solutions that augment healthcare teams to deliver better patient, member, business and financial outcomes. “The services cover the entire lifecycle of a payer organization, including member acquisition, enrollment and billing, benefit set-up, claims adjudication, provider credentialing and data management, payment integrity and financial recovery, grievance and appeals, provider and member engagement, prior authorizations, case management and population health management, and the various functions in the revenue cycle of a provider organization,” the release said. The healthcare services business has over 20,000 employees across India, Philippines, US and Jamaica, and recorded revenue of about $400 million in FY2021. HGS said it will focus on strengthening its consumer engagement solutions (CES), HGS Digital and HRO/ Payroll businesses that support many top global brands across its nine verticals. Services to healthcare clients delivered by the HGS Digital and HRO/ Payroll businesses will continue to be part of HGS’ portfolio. “Our healthcare services business has steadily grown over the years. We reached a stage where we could recommend to promoter to divest stake in this business to unlock value for all HGS stakeholders. We will use the generated funds to strategically invest for the future growth of the organisation. We see a long-term value and benefit to HGS in doing so,” HGS Global CEO Partha DeSarkar said. HGS’ net profit more than doubled to Rs 117 crore in June 2021 quarter from the year-ago period, while it’s operating revenue grew 25.5 per cent to Rs 1,550.5 crore. Source: Apart from headline and a few edits, the news has been published from BusinessToday.in

The researcher of the University of California (UC) San Francisco in the US found that the risk of preterm birth occurs at less than 32 weeks, was 60 percent higher for people infected with Covid-19 at some point in their pregnancy. This report was published in the Lancet Regional Health Journal. For people with the issue of hypertension, diabetes, and or obesity as well as Covid-19, the risk of preterm birth during pregnancy rises to 160 percent. Preterm birth is a matter of concern for the infant as well as the mother. It also leads to a higher risk of infant complications. Therefore, with the surge of increased infection of Delta Virus cases. It has become important to look after pregnant women for ensuring their safety and decreasing the risk of preterm birth.  As per the research analysis of all live births between, January 2020 to 2021, documented by the California Vital Statistics birth certificate, out of 240,157 recorded births, nearly 9,000, or 3.7 percent, indicating a Covid-19 diagnosis pregnancy. According to a study, the preterm birthrate among birthing people with a covid-19 diagnosis was 11.8 percent compared with 8.7 percent among those without the disease, as published in healthworld.com.

At present, there is a total of 21, Covid-19 related vaccines, approved for vaccination across the globe. As per the data, to date around 36,500,000 people are fully vaccinated in the United Kingdom.  If we look into the data for the United States over 162,100,000 people are fully vaccinated until now.  According to the data compiled by Google, 13% of the total world population has been fully vaccinated, against Covid-19. Although people are being encouraged to immediately report any side effects after taking the vaccine. As the Center for Disease Prevention stated to monitoring real-world vaccine safety. Various side effects like swelling, redness, and pain at the area of injection were experienced by people. Other commonly reported symptoms are fever, chills, and nausea. On the contrary, many people did not experience any side effects after the vaccination. Now the question arises, whether these people have not been protected again Covid-19. William Schaffner, M. D., professor of infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, TN, said, “There is no correlation between side effects and effectiveness of the covid-19 vaccine. Neither the absence and nor the presence of side effects signifies any kind of strong immunity.  Source:  MedicalNewsToday

New Delhi: For our sportsmen who are making our nation proud at the Tokyo Olympics, a multi-specialty healthcare startup has announced free healthcare services to all 127 Indian athletes competing at the Tokyo Olympics 2020. The athletes may avail any surgical treatment from about 50 surgeries free of cost for life. These include surgical services related to Sports Orthopaedics, Proctology, Urology, Laparoscopy, Vascular, Ophthalmology and more. A sportsperson often avails medical services in Sports Orthopaedics, Proctology, Urology, Ophthalmology etc. Glamyo Health, with a network of over 200 hospitals across 9 cities, specialises in these services with a team of surgeons and a network of hospitals. The company says it has put a dedicated team in place to coordinate and execute the free healthcare scheme. “Today when Indian athletes have made us proud, we take this opportunity to thank them for their exceptional performance and contribution on the international level and are pleased to provide them our surgical services for free,” said Archit Garg, Co-founder, Glamyo Health. Glamyo, whose services will not be limited to Olympic medallists, it will be for all 127 Indian athletes, has already served 12,500+ patients and works with 150+ highly qualified surgeons. The healthcare provider further plans to expand its presence to 20 cities and have over 250 hospitals in its network by the end of the year 2021. With this help for our athletes, the brand will surely aid in their much-needed medical requirements. Source: India TV

ADAMA India, an Israeli-based MNC in Hyderabad, has donated oxygen generation plants and storage tanks worth Rs 3 crore to multiple hospitals in India. Hyderabad: ADAMA India is an Israel-based company situated in Hyderabad. As part of its on-going community initiative, the MNC donated oxygen generation tanks to multiple hospitals in India worth Rs 3 crore to support the country in its fight against COVID-19.  Eight oxygen generation plants and two oxygen storage tanks will soon be installed in Mahavir Hospital and Research Centre, in Hyderabad, District Government Hospital, Nandyal, and Pushpalata Government Hospital in Andhra Pradesh’s Gudivada. India struggled a lot during the second wave of the pandemic and due to the oxygen shortage in the country, many people lost their lives. Therefore, the need for oxygen generation tanks was at its peak during the second wave. However, ESIC Hospital in Ghaziabad is the first to get the installation of an oxygen generation plant, other government and trust hospitals still wait to finish the installation in the next few weeks.  The hospitals that await installations are in Ballari (Karnataka), Morena, Sheopur and Indore (Madhya Pradesh), Pune (Maharashtra) and Bathinda (Punjab). Apart from supporting the country to increase oxygen generation, ADAMA has also helped by pitching in for other healthcare initiatives like donating high-flow nasal oxygen sets, autoclave machines, Maglumi analyser machines, along with reagent kits, fogger machines, N95 Masks, face shields and medicines. The global pandemic has increased the demand for oxygen in the world. The oxygen is not only used in treatment of COVID-19 patients, it is used as a medicine for patients of multiple diseases like patients in times of surgery, trauma, heart failure, asthma, pneumonia, and maternal and child care. Important anecdote: Pneumonia accounts for 8, 00,000 lakh deaths per year and according to estimation, 20 to 40% of these deaths can be eliminated with the use and availability of oxygen therapy.  Source: India Today