Category: International & World

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International & World

SCYNEXIS and Hansoh Pharma announce licensing agreement and strategic partnership for Ibrexafungerp in Greater China

  • Partnership aims to accelerate access to breakthrough therapies in order to combat difficult-to-treat and often drug-resistant fungal infections in Greater China
  • SCYNEXIS will receive a $10 million upfront payment and will also be eligible to receive development and commercial milestones, plus low double-digit royalties on net product sales
  • Ibrexafungerp is a first-in-class, broad-spectrum triterpenoid antifungal agent providing the therapeutic advantages of both IV and oral formulations

JERSEY CITY, N.J. & SHANGHAI — (BUSINESS WIRE) — SCYNEXIS, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCYX), a biotechnology company pioneering innovative medicines to overcome and prevent difficult-to-treat and drug-resistant infections, and Hansoh Pharmaceutical Group Company Limited (“Hansoh Pharma”, 3692:HK), one of the leading biopharmaceutical companies in China, today announced a strategic partnership and license agreement for the development and commercialization of Ibrexafungerp for the Greater China region.

Ibrexafungerp is a first-in-class, broad-spectrum triterpenoid antifungal agent providing the therapeutic advantages of both intravenous and oral formulations. It is currently under review by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of vaginal yeast infections, and in late-stage development for multiple indications, including life-threatening fungal infections in hospitalized patients.

“We are excited and honored to partner with Hansoh Pharma given their strong experience in the infectious disease space and their exceptional development, manufacturing and commercial capabilities in Greater China.” said Marco Taglietti, M.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of SCYNEXIS. “This agreement represents a major step forward for ibrexafungerp in the global market, as resistance to azoles grows and deadly fungal infections such as Candida auris continue to emerge worldwide. This partnership not only provides non-dilutive funding to our Company but also further validates the potential of ibrexafungerp as a global anti-fungal franchise. We continue to seek other opportunities to monetize our global rights and leverage ibrexafungerp’s long-lasting patent exclusivity.”

Aifeng Lyu, Ph.D., President of Hansoh Pharma, added, “Antifungal resistance is on the rise, posing a global health threat, and with only three classes of antifungal drugs on the market, we recognize the urgent need for more effective antifungal therapies. We believe in ibrexafungerp’s potential to address this need and we are confident that with our integrated R&D, manufacturing, and commercial infrastructure, we can make ibrexafungerp a significant commercial success in Greater China. We look forward to working with SCYNEXIS to bring this novel and differentiated antifungal to patients in Greater China.”

Under the terms of the agreement, Hansoh shall be responsible for the development, regulatory approval, and commercialization of ibrexafungerp in Greater China. SCYNEXIS will receive a $10 million upfront payment and will also be eligible to receive development and commercial milestones, plus low double-digit royalties on net product sales.

About Ibrexafungerp

Ibrexafungerp is an oral antifungal product candidate under regulatory review for the treatment of vaginal yeast infection also known as vulvovaginal candidiasis (VVC). Its mechanism of action is fungicidal against Candida species, meaning it kills fungal cells. In December 2020, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) accepted a New Drug Application for ibrexafungerp and granted a Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA) action date of June 1, 2021. The NDA is supported by positive results from two Phase 3, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multi-center studies (VANISH-303 and VANISH-306), in which oral ibrexafungerp demonstrated statistically superior efficacy and a favorable tolerability profile in women with VVC. If approved, this could be the first new antifungal class in over 20 years, and the first and only non-azole treatment for vaginal yeast infections.

About SCYNEXIS

SCYNEXIS, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCYX) is a biotechnology company pioneering innovative medicines to help millions of patients worldwide overcome and prevent difficult-to-treat infections that are becoming increasingly drug-resistant. Our lead candidate ibrexafungerp (formerly known as SCY-078), a broad-spectrum, IV/oral antifungal agent representing a novel therapeutic class, is under regulatory review for vaginal yeast infection and in late-stage development for multiple life-threatening fungal infections in hospitalized patients. The SCYNEXIS team has deep expertise in anti-infective drug development and marketing, which can be leveraged to advance ibrexafungerp from clinical development to commercialization. For more information, visit www.scynexis.com.

About Hansoh Pharmaceutical Group

Hansoh Pharma (3692.HK), one of the largest biopharmaceutical companies in Greater China and in Asia, is committed to discovering and developing life-changing medicines to help patients conquer serious diseases and disorders. Hansoh Pharma is supported by over 10,000 dedicated employees in China and the United States.

Founded in 1995, Hansoh has fully integrated research and development, manufacturing, and commercial capabilities, supporting leading positions across a broad range of therapeutic areas, including oncology, central nervous system (CNS) disorders, infectious diseases, gastrointestinal disorders, diabetes, and autoimmune diseases, among others. With the support of over 1,400 highly skilled R&D professionals, Hansoh has successfully developed multiple internally discovered drug candidates into NMPA-approved innovative medicines, including morinidazole (迈灵达®), a third-generation nitroimidazole antibiotic; PEG-loxenatide (孚来美®), the first once-weekly long-acting GLP-1 analogue discovered and developed in China for the treatment of diabetes; flumatinib (昕福®), a second-generation BCR-ABL inhibitor for frontline treatment of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML); and almonertinib (阿美乐®), a third-generation EGFR inhibitor for the treatment of NSCLC with EGFR mutations.

For more information, visit www.hspharm.com

SCYNEXIS Forward Looking Statement

Statements contained in this press release regarding expected future events or results are “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including but not limited to statements regarding SCYNEXIS’s expected timing of FDA approval and the commercial launch of ibrexafungerp and the potential benefits of ibrexafungerp. Because such statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: risks inherent in SCYNEXIS’s ability to successfully obtain regulatory approval to commence the commercial launch of ibrexafungerp; SCYNEXIS’s need for additional capital resources; and SCYNEXIS’s reliance on third parties to conduct SCYNEXIS’s commercialization efforts. These and other risks are described more fully in SCYNEXIS’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including without limitation, its most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and Form 10-Q under the caption “Risk Factors” and other documents subsequently filed with or furnished to the Securities and Exchange Commission. All forward-looking statements contained in this press release speak only as of the date on which they were made. SCYNEXIS undertakes no obligation to update such statements to reflect events that occur or circumstances that exist after the date on which they were made.

Contacts

SCYNEXIS
Investor Relations
Irina Koffler

LifeSci Advisors

Tel: (646) 970-4681

ikoffler@lifesciadvisors.com

Media Relations
Gloria Gasaatura

LifeSci Communications

Tel: (646) 970-4688

ggasaatura@lifescicomms.com

Hansoh Pharma
Global Business Development
Zhen Yang

partner@hansohbio.com

Investor Relations
Sophia Dong

IR@hspharm.com

Categories
International & World

EU chief: Bloc was late, over-confident on vaccine rollout

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen speaks during a debate on the united EU approach to COVID-19 vaccinations at the European Parliament in Brussels, Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2021. (Johanna Geron, Pool via AP)

 

BRUSSELS (AP) — As the European Union surpassed 500,000 people lost to the virus, the EU Commission chief said Wednesday that the bloc’s much-criticized vaccine rollout could be partly blamed on the EU being over-optimistic, over-confident and plainly “late.”

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen defended the EU’s overall approach of trying to beat the pandemic with a unified vaccine plan for its 27 nations, even if she admitted mistakes in the strategy to quickly obtain sufficient vaccines for its 447 million citizens.

“We are still not where we want to be. We were late to authorize. We were too optimistic when it came to massive production and perhaps we were too confident that, what we ordered, would actually be delivered on time,” von der Leyen told the EU parliament.

On the vaccine authorization, which left the EU three weeks behind Britain in starting its vaccination campaign, von der Leyen promised action. She said the EU would launch a clinical trial network and adapt the approval process to get doses quicker from the labs into the arms of a needy population.

“It’s is true there are also lessons to be drawn from the procedure we have followed. And we are already drawing them,” she told legislators.

The European Medicines Agency has approved three coronavirus vaccines for the bloc so far — from Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Oxford-AstraZeneca — and is reviewing others.

Despite weeks of stinging criticism as the EU’s vaccine campaign failed to gain momentum compared to Britain, Israel and the United States, the main parties in the legislature stuck with von der Leyen’s approach of moving forward with all member states together.

“The key decisions were right,” said Manfred Weber, the leader of the Christian Democrat European People’s Party.

The Socialists and Democrats party leader Iratxe Garcia said “Fiasco, catastrophe, disaster: they ring very true to our citizens,” but added her party will stick with von der Leyen on the bloc moving together. “Criticism is necessary but with a constructive spirit.”

Von der Leyen’s assessment came as the bloc’s death toll passed a landmark of 500,000, a stunning statistic in less than a year that fundamentally challenges the bloc’s vaunted welfare standards and health care capabilities.

It came as the bloc was fighting off the remnants of a second surge of COVID-19 that has kept nations from Portugal to Finland under all kinds of lockdowns, curfews and restrictions as authorities race to vaccinate as many people as possible.

The last official weekly figures from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control are expected Thursday but Johns Hopkins University produced a daily tally showing EU virus deaths at over 500,800 on Wednesday.

The United States, with a population of 330 million, leads the world’s national virus toll with more than 468,000 deaths.

Von der Leyen stuck with her promise to have 70% of the EU’s adult population vaccinated by the end of summer and blamed big pharmaceutical companies for not keeping vaccine production up high enough.

“Indeed, industry has to match the groundbreaking pace of science,” von der Leyen said. “We fully understand that difficulties will arise in the mass production of vaccines. But Europe has invested billions of euros in capacities in advance, and we urged the member states to plan the vaccine rollout. So now we all need predictability.”

___

Follow AP’s pandemic coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic,https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak

— Associated Press

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International & World

‘Extremely unlikely’ that virus came from lab, says W.H.O. team in Wuhan

World Health Organization scientists tracing the pandemic’s origin in Wuhan, China, said the virus had probably spread through an animal host and was not created in a lab.

 

— NYT: Top Stories

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International & World

AP Interview: Olympic champion adds voice to #MeToo movement

Greek Olympic sailing champion Sofia Bekatorou poses for a photograph during an interview for the Associated Press, at Agios Kosmas marina in southern Athens, Thursday, Feb. 4, 2021. Bekatorou is the most successful female athlete in Greek sporting history who recently revealed that she was the victim of a sexual assault, allegedly by a senior sports official in 1998. In an interview with The Associated Press, Bekatorou said she was glad those revelations are having an impact in a country long accustomed to cronyism and senior-level impunity.   (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

 

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Before she could join sailing classes near her home in Athens, Sofia Bekatorou had to show an instructor she could tie a basic knot properly. Passing the test at age 8 changed her life.

Bekatorou spent her first afternoons in a bathtub-sized sailboat stuck in circles, but coaches took note of the girl’s determination. By her 12th birthday, she was outperforming the boys in competitive races and on a path to winning gold medals as a world champion and at the Olympics.

But the most successful woman in modern Greece’s sporting history revealed in January that an incident almost 23 years ago had marred much of her personal happiness and professional career — an alleged sexual assault by a Greek sailing federation official at a hotel in Palma de Mallorca, Spain.

Her disclosure was made at a little-advertised online sports seminar, but it gained national attention and elicited statements of support for Bekatorou from the country’s prime minister and first female president. It was followed by dozens of public claims of sexual misconduct and workplace intimidation in the worlds of elite sports, the performing arts, and academia.

Bekatarou, 43, said she hoped the reaction marked a turning point for Greek society, which often seems resigned to official cronyism and impunity.

“I’m very happy that they came forward and spoke out,” she said in an interview with The Associated Press,. “We need to embrace people who have lived through such experiences, because it’s a very big step, even talking about it.”

Bekatorou won a gold medal in the women’s double-handed dinghy event with teammate Emilia Tsoulfa at the 2004 Summer Olympics, which was held in Athens.

Greeks caught televised glimpses of the many successes that followed: the keelboat race that returned her to an Olympics podium four years later in Beijing, and opening the parade of nations for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Summer Games as the first female flag-bearer ever to lead the Greek Olympic team.

Bekatorou dedicated the honor at Maracana Stadium to her older sister, Varia, who had died of brain cancer four months earlier. Her long run in top-tier competition included a battle with a career-threatening back injury and, as she recently revealed, years of therapy. Reserved and soft-spoken, Bekatorou says the sailing federation official sexually assaulted her in 1998, on the day she celebrated qualifying for the Sydney Olympics. Neither she nor prosecuting authorities have publicly identified the accused official, who has denied the allegations.

Along with her Olympic medals, Bekatorou brought home four World Championship titles and a shelfful of national and European trophies. She was twice named World Sailor of the Year. In recognition of her accomplishments, she was given the rank of major in the Greek army.

But she alleges that the the official who assaulted her also undermined her position on the national sailing team over nearly 20 years, arguing that priority should be given to younger competitors.

“It’s a very big weight that we carry in our personal life. And these are things that can actually put you in a deep depression for a very long time,” Bekatorou said. “And unless you have the (right) help and environment, it’s not easy to overcome it and move on.”

The accused official was fired last month from senior posts at the Hellenic Sailing Federation and the Hellenic Olympic Committee. He called Bekatorou’s allegations “defamatory and deceitful.”

The alleged assault has exceeded a 15-year statute of limitations, but a public prosecutor has agreed to examine the case for other possible victims.

Greek Justice Minister Kostas Tsiaras said the government planned to make legal changes to make it easier for sexual assault victims to report crimes.

Bekatorou said the impact of her revelations had taken her by surprise.

She smiled when asked about future plans and the test given to her when first learning to sail. Demonstrating her knowledge, and the skill she picked up as an 8-year-old, she looped a piece of microphone cable into a bowline knot.

“I’ll have to sail on bigger boats that are less physically demanding, but I don’t really like the idea of being called a former competitor.”

She is happy, she said, to be associated with the #MeToo movement that followed the allegations of past sexual misconduct that exploded in 2017 and the subsequent conviction of Hollywood film producer Harvey Weinstein.

When the allegations emerged in the entertainment industry, “I was feeling, you know, something really strong coming from inside, but I wasn’t ready to deal with it. And I didn’t want just to talk about it. I wanted to change something,” Bekatorou said.

“And I knew that in order to change something, I had to be ready, whether someone would follow me or no one would….Now, I’m ready.”

___

Follow Gatopoulos at https://twitter.com/dgatopoulos and Tongas at https://twitter.com/theodoratongas

 

— Associated Press

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International & World

An antidote to pandemic blues, with some assembly required

Guy Warein, a 70-year-old retiree, works on model trains in his home in Richebourg, northern France, Wednesday, Jan 27, 2021. The old-school pastimes of making scale models and playing with miniature trains are making a comeback as a form of therapy against the pandemic blues. Sales are booming as locked-down families glue and paint models and dust off train sets. (AP Photo/Michel Spingler)

 

PARIS (AP) — He hunches at the dining room table, putting the finishing touches on his miniature World War II tank. Deep in concentration, he keeps his hand steady as he works to make the scaled-down plastic model look as realistic as possible.

And as he does so, Maxime Fannoy — locked-down husband and father riding out the coronavirus with his family in Belgium — feels the outside world’s unremitting pandemic nightmare slip thankfully out of focus.

“It’s an escape. When you are building a kit or a scene, you really plunge into it,” Fannoy says. “Everything else loses its importance, and in the current context, that is a real help.”

Rejuvenated by quarantines and lockdowns, the old-school pastime of creating miniature worlds by assembling and decorating scaled-down models or running mini trains on mini tracks is enjoying a revival — plastic therapy against the pandemic blues.

Sales are booming as families shorn of their social lives keep idle hands and minds busy by making models and dusting off train sets. British brand Airfix saw a run on plastic kits for Spitfires, the iconic World War II fighter plane. Hornby, which owns Airfix and also makes an array of model trains and cars under other brands, has become profitable again with sales soaring.

The analog pleasures of gluing and painting, fixing and fiddling, are also peeling some members of the digital generation away from their screens. Teens are catching the modeling bug from parents and grandparents who suddenly find themselves with time again to indulge in hobbies many had been too busy to pursue since childhood.

In France, 70-year-old retiree Guy Warein says his lockdown-time renovations on a model train set that had been gathering dust in his attic have helped him connect with his video-gaming grandkids, pulling them “from the virtual world to reality.”

On a visit when school was out, the eldest, aged 16, said: “‘Come on Grandpa, let’s go and see the trains and make them work.’ So we put them together and did things together,” Warein says. “It’s a coming together of generations, and that can only be beneficial.”

So he repaired the HO-scale locomotives and rolling stock inherited from his father-in-law and fixed up the room where he intends to run them on a U-shaped track layout that he’s designing. The activity helped Warein, a former educator and municipal councilor, tune out the pandemic and its anxieties.

“You fill your time and forget what’s happening around you,” he says. “Turning on the radio or the television is like being hit with a truncheon, because they systematically talk about the virus and the misfortunes it has brought. … Having a hobby allows me to think of other things.”

Manufacturers have struggled to meet the global surge in interest. Hornby’s CEO, Lyndon Davies, says he had to airfreight 10,000 Spitfire kits from a factory in India when Airfix’s stocks ran dry for the first time in the company’s 71-year history.

“What you don’t want of your kids, your grandchildren, is them sitting watching the TV or staring at phones all the time. This pandemic has really brought families together at home,” he says. “They have used the types of products we make to try and forget what was going on in the outside world.”

Another British manufacturer, Peco, has hired extra staff to satisfy surging orders — up by 50% in some markets — for its miniature trains, tracks and modeling accessories.

“This is happening everywhere: Our markets in the UK, across Europe, in Australia, North America, in China,” says Steve Haynes, the sales manager. “People are making far greater use of their spare time, their free time, their enforced time stuck at home to tackle the boredom, to tackle the isolation and do something creative.”

In Belgium, Fannoy calls himself a “model-maker made from lockdown.” He had long bought plastic kits, because they reminded him of childhood, but had never had time to build them. Instead, he hoarded them away in a wardrobe.

When the pandemic shut down his busy life and forced him to do his job as a business developer from home, he set to work on his stash, stocking up on brushes and paints in the final days before lockdown.

He first completed a series of 1/24th-scale rally cars. A WWII Tiger tank, painted to look weathered and mounted in a wintry scene with troops and a jeep, followed at the end of 2020. He posted photos of the diorama, the fruit of 50 hours of handiwork, on Facebook.

“I generally start in the evenings at around 8 p.m. and stop around 11 p.m. to midnight,” Fannoy says. “I can no longer do the things I would normally do. So what do I do? I open a kit and work on it. In fact, it’s my wife who comes and pulls me out of this mini-world I live in.”

“The hours fly by. It’s a form of meditation,” he says. “It has helped enormously in getting me through the past year.”

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Follow AP coverage of the coronavirus pandemic at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak

 

— Associated Press

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International & World

Asylum-seekers stuck in Cyprus’ cramped camp want out

A migrant wearing a face mask stands behind a fence inside a refugee camp in Kokkinotrimithia outside of capital Nicosia, Cyprus, Friday, Feb. 5, 2021. Cyprus’ Interior Minister Nicos Nouris said this week that the east Mediterranean island nation whose closest point to Syria is around 150 kilometers (93 miles) remains first among all other European Union member states with the most asylum applications relative to its population. Last year, the country of around 1.1 million people racked up 7,000 asylum applications – most of them from Syrians (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — Emmanuel Conteh negotiates the muddy, rutted pathways in shorts and torn plastic flip-flops and says he can’t sleep in his heavy canvas tent at night because of the cold.

He laments the “hellish” conditions in ethnically divided Cyprus’ cramped Pournara migrant reception camp, where he’s been living for the past two months after flying to the breakaway Turkish Cypriot north and then clandestinely crossing into the internationally recognized south.

He says he fled his native Sierra Leone because he was persecuted for refusing to follow in his father’s footsteps and practice a kind of witchcraft.

“The head of this society, they want to train me, but I refused,” said Conteh.

He wants Cypriot authorities to swiftly process his asylum application and let him and others out of the razor-wire-encircled former military camp near the industrial western fringes of the capital Nicosia that he says feels like prison.

“We’re not prisoners. We’re asylum-seekers. Let them finish our process and then (free) us,” Conteh said. “That’s all we’re asking.”

The small eastern Mediterranean island republic is trying to cope with a huge backlog of asylum applications and despite government efforts to expedite the process, migrants say they feel literally left out in the cold.

Designed to accommodate 1,000 people at the most, Pournara is a “first instance” camp where in theory asylum-seekers are initially processed and released after three days. But it now houses 1,500 people, some of whom have been there for months.

Interior Minister Nicos Nouris said this week that Cyprus remains first among all other European Union member states in asylum applications relative to its population.

Last year, the country of around 1.1 million racked up 7,000 asylum applications — most of them from Syrians. Nouris said the government is doing its best to speed up the application process to let in those who qualify and to send back migrants whose application is turned down.

Like Conteh, most asylum-seekers enter the island from the Turkish Cypriot north and cross a porous, United Nations-controlled buffer zone into the south. Many hope to transfer to another EU country on the continent.

But asylum-seekers say the process is just taking too long amid a slow-down in application processing brought on by COVID-19 restrictions. They insist that they’ve tested negative numerous times for the coronavirus and want authorities to open the camp’s gates so they can seek better accommodation.

Hansoa Anyan from Cameroon says the camp’s overcrowded conditions, compounded by asylum processing delays, have caused friction between African and Syrian migrants.

He claimed that authorities are favoring Syrians, letting them out of the camp sooner and more frequently than Africans.

That frustration boiled over earlier this week when African migrants tried in protest to block Syrians from exiting.

Cypriot government officials deny there’s any discrimination regarding the timing of migrants’ release. Interior Ministry spokesman Loizos Michael said releases must be done gradually and in order of priority, starting with women, children and minors.

He said a daily stream of arrivals to the camp is making conditions tougher on those living there, but camp authorities are making “herculean efforts” to improve the situation.

But Corina Droushiotou who heads the Cyprus Refugee Council — a group that offers legal help to migrants with their asylum applications — said the migrants’ “de facto detention” at Pournara is “completely unnecessary” and is fanning anger among the migrants, some of whom have been living there for as many as five months.

Droushiotou said despite continued, island-wide COVID-19 restrictions including a night-time curfew, authorities could have eased tensions by allowing people who found a place to stay outside the camp to leave. Others could have been permitted to leave for short periods on condition they return before the start of curfew.

“The situation in Pournara signals a failure by the authorities to effectively address ongoing issues related to migrants and refugees,” said Droushiotou, adding that the government lacks a comprehensive migration and integration strategy.

— Associated Press

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International & World

‘Eye of the storm’: Diverse east London grapples with virus

Road cleaners work in the town centre of Ilford in London, Friday, Jan. 29, 2021. In parts of east London, the pandemic is hitting much harder than most places in the U.K. The borough of Redbridge had the nation’s second worst infection rate in January, with an estimated 1 in 15 residents thought to be infected. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)

 

LONDON (AP) — Taxicab driver Gary Nerden knows colleagues who got seriously ill from COVID-19. He knows the area of east London where he lives and works has among the highest infection rates in the whole of England. But since he can’t afford not to work, he drives around picking up strangers for up to 12 hours a day, relying on a flimsy plastic screen to keep him safe.

“I’ve got people telling me they won’t wear a mask, saying they’re exempt,” said Nerden, 57. “I’ve got diabetes, I have to look after myself. I wipe the handles, the seat belt, after every customer, but that’s all I can do, really.”

Nerden and his wife, a hospital administrative worker, live in the outer London borough of Redbridge, which in mid-January had the country’s second-highest rate of residents testing positive for the coronavirus: 1,571 cases per 100,000 people. Official figures estimated that at one point, 1 in 15 people there had COVID-19 — even after the government imposed a third national lockdown to control a fast-spreading, more contagious variant of the virus.

Redbridge and its surrounding areas, which lie on a commuter belt between the capital’s northeast and coastal Essex, have been dubbed the “COVID triangle” because they all topped England’s worst infection rates in recent weeks. While case rates have come down significantly, local leaders said the situation remained critical and the borough was still “in the eye of the storm.”

They say the area’s large number of essential workers in public-facing jobs, combined with dense housing and high levels of poverty, contribute to why the virus has hit it much harder than most places in the U.K. Those factors also make fighting the pandemic there particularly challenging.

“We have some of the most front-line workers here in the community: the taxi drivers, the NHS (National Health Service) workers, the train drivers going into central London, the commuter workers, the cleaners,” Redbridge Council leader Jas Athwal said.

“People are taking their chances — is it about feeding my children, or risking myself with COVID? And of course, they need to feed their children,” Athwal added. “All that accounts for the excess number of virus infections, the deaths, because people are having to go out to do their job.”

Many of those lower-income workers with high exposure to the virus are from ethnic minority backgrounds, who are among the most at-risk — as well as the hardest to persuade to get vaccinated. Redbridge’s population is among the most diverse in the country, with large Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities and fewer than 40% of residents identifying as white British.

Numerous studies have shown that the pandemic is causing disproportionate serious illness and deaths among ethnic minorities and those from poorer households. In the U.K., Public Health England found that after accounting for factors like age and sex, people of Bangladeshi heritage were dying from COVID-19 at twice the rate of white Britons. Black people and other Asian groups also had a 10% to 50% higher risk of death.

Experts say that is due to a combination of factors. People from minority groups are more likely to live in crowded housing and to take poorly ventilated public transport to go to work. They are also more likely to have long-term conditions like heart disease and diabetes that increase their risk of becoming seriously ill if they catch the virus.

Khayer Chowdhury, a Redbridge councilor of Bangladeshi descent, said many Asian households in the borough are multigenerational families living together under one roof, giving the virus greater opportunity to spread.

“Our diversity makes us unique, but it also makes us vulnerable,” he said.

Britain has lost more than 100,000 lives to the coronavirus, the worst death toll in Europe.

“Here in the community, everybody knows somebody who’s passed away,” Athwal said. “The fear is finally starting to hit home.”

Officials say a small but increasing number of people are breaking restrictions, partly because of fatigue with lockdown rules. Enforcement officers have broken up gatherings and “car meets,” shutting down and fining clubs and restaurants for hosting parties. On a recent weekday, a large team of police officers patrolled the main shopping street, which bustled with a steady stream of people despite the government’s “stay at home” message.

But the bigger challenge is on the vaccination front. Several U.K.-based studies have suggested that vaccine take-up rates for both the coronavirus and other jabs among Black people and minorities are significantly lower than that in the general population. Some researchers say that’s caused by longstanding distrust of authorities and disengagement from public health messages, and exacerbated by anti-vaccine posts on social media.

Full Coverage: Coronavirus pandemic

Local resident Salman Khan and his wife said they were not sure they would have the jab if offered, because the pandemic has made them question “whether the government and the news is telling the truth.”

Dr. Anil Mehta, a local doctor, said health officials are making every effort to reach the poorest and hardest to reach communities. This week he is offering vaccine shots out at homeless shelters, hoping to inoculate the area’s many refugees and those sleeping rough. He said he’s also taken up the role of “myth-buster,” trying to dispel misinformation and conspiracy theories.

“People believe in all sorts of things — this is affecting fertility, or against Black Lives Matter,” Mehta said. “There is a lot of hesitancy, whether they want it, whether they trust us. That’s our battle at the moment.”

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Follow all of AP’s pandemic coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic, https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak

 

— Associated Press

Categories
International & World

As virus variants spread, ‘No one is safe until everyone is safe’

Rich countries are buying up coronavirus vaccines, leaving poorer regions vulnerable — and as potential breeding grounds for variants, like one found in South Africa, that could make vaccines less effective.

 

— NYT: Top Stories

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International & World

Navalny defiant as Russian court rejects arrest appeal

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny appears on a TV screen during a live session with the court during a hearing of his appeal in a court in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, Jan. 28, 2021, with an image of the Moscow Kremlin in the background. Navalny was jailed soon after arriving to Moscow after authorities accused him of violating of the terms of his 2014 fraud conviction. A court on Thursday is to hear an appeal on the ruling to remand him into custody. Next week, another court will decide whether to send him to prison for several years for the alleged violations. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin)

 

MOSCOW (AP) — A Russian court on Thursday rejected opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s appeal of his arrest while authorities detained several of his allies and issued warnings to social media companies after tens of thousands swarmed the streets in over 100 Russian cities last weekend demanding his release.

Appearing in court by video link from jail, Navalny denounced criminal proceedings against him as part of the government’s efforts to intimidate the opposition.

“You won’t succeed in scaring tens of millions of people who have been robbed by that government,” he said. “Yes, you have the power now to put me in handcuffs, but it’s not going to last forever.”

The 44-year-old Navalny, the most well-known critic of President Vladimir Putin’s government, was arrested Jan. 17 upon returning from Germany, where he spent five months recovering from nerve-agent poisoning that he blames on the Kremlin. Russian authorities have rejected the accusations.

Navalny was arrested and jailed for 30 days at the request of Russia’s penitentiary service, which charged that he had violated the probation terms of his suspended sentence from a 2014 money-laundering conviction that rejected as politically driven. He is also currently facing accusations in two separate criminal probes.

Before the Moscow Region Court rejected the appeal of his recent arrest, defense lawyers argued that while undergoing rehabilitation in Germany, Navalny could not register with authorities as required by the probation terms. His lawyers also charged that Navalny’s due process rights were repeatedly violated during his arrest.

Navalny described his jailing following an earlier court hearing quickly held at a police station as a mockery of justice.

“It was demonstrative lawlessness intended to scare me and all others,” he told the Moscow court.

Navalny’s supporters are organizing another round of rallies for Sunday. Police on Wednesday searched Navalny’s apartment, a rented accommodation where his wife, Yulia, has been living and the residences of several of his associates and supporters.

Navalny’s brother, Oleg Navalny, his top ally, Lyubov Sobol, Dr. Anastasia Vasilyeva from the Navalny-backed Alliance of Doctors and Maria Alyokhina from the Pussy Riot punk collective were detained for 48 hours as part of a criminal probe into alleged violations of coronavirus regulations during last Saturday’s protests.

Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the searches and detentions were a legitimate part of police efforts to investigate the alleged violations during the events.

“Law enforcement agencies are doing their job,” Peskov said during a conference call with reporters. “There were numerous violations of Russian laws, and law enforcement agencies are at work.”

Moscow police on Thursday issued a notice to the public not to join protests Sunday, warning that officers would act resolutely to disperse unsanctioned rallies and bring participants to justice.

Also Thursday, Russian prosecutors issued warnings to Facebook, Google, Twitter, TikTok and Russian social networks, demanding that they block calls for more protests.

“The state doesn’t want the social networks to become a platform for promoting such illegal actions,” Peskov said.

Asked if a refusal to remove such content could prompt Russian authorities to block the platforms, Peskov said it would be up to relevant government agencies to consider a response.

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“All pros and cons will be weighed and, if necessary, measures envisaged by the law will be taken,” he said.

Earlier this week, Russian state communications watchdog Roskomnadzor said it would fine Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, YouTube and two Russian social networks for their failure to block calls on minors to join Saturday’s protests.

Facebook, Google and TikTok haven’t responded to requests for comment about the Russian authorities’ action. Twitter refused to comment to The Associated Press on Thursday.

Also Thursday, Russia’s Investigative Committee said it opened a criminal probe against Navalny’s top strategist, Leonid Volkov, accusing him of encouraging minors to participate in unauthorized rallies. Volkov, who currently stays abroad, rejected the charges.

“The streets must speak now. There is nothing else left,” Volkov tweeted after Navalny’s appeal was rejected, repeating the call on Russians to turn out in force on Sunday.

In a challenge to Putin two days after Navalny’s arrest, his organization released an extensive video report on a palatial seaside compound allegedly built for the president. It has been viewed over 98 million times, further stoking discontent.

Demonstrations calling for Navalny’s release took place in more than 100 cities across the nation last Saturday, a strong show of rising anger toward the Kremlin. Nearly 4,000 people were reported detained at those protests and some were handed fines and jail terms.

Speaking during Thursday’s court hearing, Navalny thanked his supporters and said, “They are the last barrier preventing our country from sliding into the degradation.”

Navalny fell into a coma while aboard a domestic flight from Siberia to Moscow on Aug. 20. He was transferred from a hospital in Siberia to a Berlin hospital two days later. Labs in Germany, France and Sweden, and tests by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, established that he was exposed to the Soviet-era Novichok nerve agent.

Russian authorities have refused to open a full-fledged criminal inquiry, citing a lack of evidence that Navalny was poisoned.

Navalny’s arrest and the harsh police actions at the protests have brought wide criticism from the West and calls for his release.

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Associated Press business writer Kelvin Chan in London contributed to this report.Associated Press

 

— Associated Press

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