- Lockdown easing delayed by four weeks
- Australia signs trade deal
- Boohoo on track for growth targets
It’s official, lockdown easing in England has been delayed for a month - a period that will surely prove an anxious wait for anyone with a wedding booked for late July. Boris Johnson confirmed yesterday that the spread of the Delta variant of the virus in the UK means restrictions will remain in place until 19 July.
The news, though unsurprising, is a blow to the hospitality industry whose margins are being heavily impacted by the ‘rule of six’ and social distancing measures. Events organisers are also feeling the pain of the announcement: “We understand the balance the government needs to take but this further delay risks striking a fatal blow to many companies in the UK events sector,” said a spokesperson for the Events Industry Alliance.
But experts looking at the broader economic picture in the UK don’t think the four week delay will have too much of an impact on recovery. The jobs market continues to improve with unemployment down to 4.7 per cent in the three months to April, from 4.8 per cent previously. The number of job vacancies in March to May was 758,000 - just 27,000 below pre-pandemic levels.
Astra Covid drug doesn’t meet objectives
A Covid-19 drug developed by AstraZeneca (AZN) has failed to meet its main endpoints in clinical trials.
The FTSE 100 pharma giant had hoped that ‘AZD7442’ would prevent symptomatic disease in people recently exposed to the coronavirus. But the antibody-based drug only reduced this risk by a third compared with the placebo.
The trial participants were unvaccinated adults who had been exposed to a person with coronavirus in the past eight days. The trial involved 1,121 participants.
But it wasn’t all bad news. The trial found that in participants who had tested negative via a PCR test, the treatment helped to reduce the risk of developing symptomatic Covid-19.
Mene Pangalos, executive vice president of biopharmaceuticals R&D at AstraZeneca, said that “while this trial did not meet the primary endpoint against symptomatic illness, we are encouraged by the protection seen in the PCR negative participants following treatment with AZD7442”.
He added that “we await results from PROVENT, our pre-exposure prevention trial and TACKLE, our treatment trial in preventing more severe disease”. HC
Further reading:
- How much is too much for AstraZeneca?
- Is AstraZeneca a victim of vaccine nationalism?
- AstraZeneca and the fight against virus variants
- Glaxo vaccine deal: why has the company done an AstraZeneca?
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