Covid-19 roundup: Vac­cines will need to beat place­bo by 50% to qual­i­fy for FDA OK; UK tri­al drops Kale­tra

The FDA will set the bar for ap­prov­ing a Covid-19 vac­cine at 50% ef­fi­ca­cy, the Wall Street Jour­nal re­port­ed, mean­ing any suc­cess­ful can­di­date will have to re­duce the risk of coro­n­avirus dis­ease by at least half com­pared to place­bo.

That re­quire­ment is part of guid­ance that the agency is set to re­lease lat­er to­day, lay­ing out de­tailed cri­te­ria for vac­cine de­vel­op­ers — some of whom are eye­ing an OK by the end of the year, in line with ex­pec­ta­tions at Op­er­a­tion Warp Speed.

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