Pfizer seeks conditional EU authorization for COVID-19 pill
THE HAGUE, Netherlands – The European drug regulator said Monday it has started evaluating an application by Pfizer for its pill to treat the effects of COVID-19.
The announcement comes as countries in much of the 27-nation bloc are reporting soaring numbers of infections as the highly transmissible omicron variant sweeps across the continent.
The European Medicines Agency said in a statement that it could decide within weeks whether to approve Pfizer’s application for a conditional marketing authorization for the drug Paxlovid, “depending on whether the data submitted are sufficiently robust and whether further information is required to support the evaluation.”
Last month, U.S. health regulators authorized the pill patients will be able to take at home to ward off the worst effects of the virus. At the time, Pfizer said it had 180,000 treatment courses available worldwide, with 60,000 to 70,000 allocated to the U.S. The company said it expected to have 250,000 available in the U.S. by the end of January.
Pfizer’s application to the EMA covers use of the pill to treat mild to moderate COVID-19 in patients ages 12 and older who are at risk of developing severe symptoms of the disease.
Palestinians summon Dutch envoy over NGO aid cutoff
JERUSALEM – The Palestinian Authority summoned the Dutch representative on Monday to object to the Netherlands’ decision to halt funding to a Palestinian civil society group that Israel controversially outlawed as a terrorist organization.
In a statement, the PA decried the “unjust and biased” decision to cut off funding to the Union of Agricultural Work Committees, one of six groups that Israel outlawed in October in what critics said was as an assault on Palestinian civil society.
The Palestinian Authority, which administers parts of the occupied West Bank and coordinates security with Israel, said UAWC provides vital aid to Palestinian farmers struggling to remain on their land in the face of Israeli settlement expansion.
The Dutch government based its decision on an independent audit of the UAWC that found no evidence the organization was involved in terrorism. It said the audit did however find a “worrisome” number of UAWC board members were linked to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a leftwing militant group. Two former UAWC employees were arrested in connection with a bombing that killed an Israeli teenager in the West Bank in 2019.
Wisconsin judge rejects attempt to block election subpoena
MADISON, Wis. – A Wisconsin judge on Monday rejected an attempt by the state’s Democratic attorney general to block a subpoena issued by a Republican-hired attorney seeking to interview the state’s chief elections administrator as part of his investigation into the 2020 election.
The ruling from Dane County Circuit Judge Rhonda Lanford is a victory for Michael Gableman, a former Wisconsin Supreme Court justice who was hired last year by Republicans to investigate the election. But it’s not going to end the ongoing legal fight over subpoenas he has issued.
Gableman issued subpoenas to the mayors and elections officials in the state’s five largest cities, as well as to Meagan Wolfe, administrator of the Wisconsin Elections Commission. Gableman filed a separate pending lawsuit in Waukesha County asking a judge to jail the mayors of Madison and Green Bay if they don’t comply. The judge there scheduled a hearing for Jan. 21.
Attorney General Josh Kaul filed a lawsuit seeking a temporary injunction to block the subpoena seeking records from the commission and a private interview with Wolfe.
Compiled from USA TODAY Network and Associated Press reports.