CNBC: Pfizer and BioNTech to request emergency authorization from FDA for Covid vaccine
“Pfizer and BioNTech will apply Friday for an emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration for their coronavirus vaccine. If Pfizer’s application is approved, the vaccine will likely be limited and rolled out in phases, with health-care workers, the elderly, and people with underlying health conditions getting the first inoculations…” (Lovelace, 11/20).

The Guardian: Wealthy nations urged to give portion of Covid vaccine as ‘humanitarian buffer’
“Public health groups are lobbying countries to commit a portion of their Covid-19 vaccine supplies to a ‘humanitarian buffer’ that would be used to inoculate people living in rebel-held territories, those in asylum-seeker camps and others unlikely to receive vaccinations from their governments. The emergency stockpile is intended to act as a safety net to ensure the global effort to end the Covid-19 pandemic is not sabotaged by governments using vaccines as bargaining chip with restive populations, or simply denying it to some marginalized groups…” (Safi, 11/20).

The Guardian: U.K. faces calls to drop opposition to patent-free Covid vaccines
“The U.K. will be asked to reconsider its opposition to waiving intellectual property rights for Covid-19 vaccines and treatments at a World Trade Organization meeting on Friday, a move that would allow mass production of treatments and inoculations against the disease and could significantly shorten the length of the pandemic, campaigners say. India and South Africa have proposed that WTO member states be allowed to waive patents and other intellectual property (IP) rights on any treatments and tools related to Covid-19 until the end of the pandemic, including for the Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines that are expected to be approved for use in the coming weeks…” (Safi, 11/19).

Reuters: Oxford’s COVID-19 vaccine trial results “definitely” before Christmas — investigator
“Results of late-stage trials of University of Oxford’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate should definitely be known by Christmas, the chief investigator on the study said on Thursday, adding it was too early to know its efficacy yet…” (Holton et al., 11/19).

Additional coverage of vaccine development and distribution is available from ABC News, AP, Financial Times, The Guardian, The Hill, STAT, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post.