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UK vaccine approval: Did Brexit speed up the process?

Lanka Talents Creation — Thu, 03 Dec 2020 04:54:09 +0000

“We do all the same safety checks and the same processes, but we have been able to speed up how they’re done because of Brexit,” he said in an interview with Times Radio.

And the Leader of the House of Commons, Jacob Rees-Mogg, tweeted: “We could only approve this vaccine so quickly because we have left the EU.”

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.View original tweet on Twitter

The EU – through the European Medicines Agency (EMA) – has yet to approve a coronavirus vaccine.

But the idea that Brexit enabled the UK to press ahead and authorise one is not right.

It was actually permitted under EU law, a point made by the head of the UK’s medicines regulator on Wednesday.

What are EU rules on approving vaccines?

Under European law a vaccine must be authorised by the EMA, but individual countries can use an emergency procedure that allows them to distribute a vaccine for temporary use in their domestic market.

Britain is still subject to those EU rules during the post-Brexit transition period which runs until the end of the year.

The UK’s own medicines regulator, the MHRA, confirmed this in a statement last month.

And its chief executive, Dr June Raine, said on Wednesday that “we have been able to authorise the supply of this vaccine using provisions under European law, which exist until 1 January”.

We asked Mr Rees-Mogg about his comment that: “Last month we changed the regulations so a vaccine did not need EU approval which is slower.”

He replied with part of the text of an “explanatory memorandum” which accompanied new laws passed by Parliament last month.

“The regulation of human medicines is an area of shared competence between the EU and Member States under article 4 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU (TFEU),” it reads.

“But in light of the EU’s comprehensive exercise of the competence, Member States are precluded from exercising the competence nationally.”

It is true that, in general, regulation of new medicines is done on an EU-wide basis. But that does not take account of the emergency provisions in EU law which Dr Raine refers to.

At the government briefing, Prime Minister Boris Johnson was asked whether the UK’s vaccine approval was down to a “Brexit bonus”.

He refused to answer directly and thanked the NHS and the Vaccine Taskforce instead.

Moving faster

The MHRA is well-regarded as a world leader in the regulation of medicine, and it has certainly chosen to move faster with vaccine approval than the EMA.

“Our speed or our progress has been totally dependent on the availability of data in our rolling review, and the rigorous assessment and independent advice we have received,” Dr Raine said.

But again, the MHRA didn’t have to rely on Brexit to do that.

For example, the European Commission confirmed earlier this week that Hungary – an EU member – could use a Russian Covid vaccine in its domestic market if it chose to do so.

‘Most appropriate’

The EMA appeared to criticise the UK approach in a statement which said it is using a slightly slower method for licensing Covid vaccines than the UK.

An initial batch of 800,000 doses of the vaccine will be shipped to the UK from Pfizer’s facilities in Belgium

It considers this approach to be “the most appropriate regulatory mechanism for use in the current pandemic emergency, to grant all EU citizens access to a vaccine and to underpin mass vaccination campaigns”.

The agency said this longer process was based on a wider body of evidence. The EMA has said it will decide by 29 December whether to grant provisional approval to the vaccine manufactured by Pfizer and BioNTech.

By Chris Morris
Reality Check correspondent, BBC News

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HSBC share price rockets 50% since its 25-year low

Lanka Talents Creation — Thu, 03 Dec 2020 04:37:46 +0000

The UK’s biggest bank has been under increasing regulatory and economic pressure in its key markets, including Europe and Asia.

But since September its fortunes have changed with its shares rising by more than 50% in Hong Kong and 48% in London, where it is listed.

Headquartered in London, more than half of HSBC’s profits come from Asia.

Although this quarter has been a strong one for the bank’s dual-listed share price, it is still down about one-third since the start of the year.

What has changed?

In October, HSBC recorded better-than-expected third quarter results on cost savings.

Despite profits being down 46%, its operations in Asia “continued to perform resiliently” with pre-tax profits of $3.2bn (£2.4bn).

Last month, HSBC surged as much as 8% on optimism that it may soon resume paying dividends.

“Now is the time for financials to shine and it seems HSBC is at the top of many lists since they have done enough to restart their dividend,” says Edward Moya at trading firm Oanda.

Investors have also been more positive on financial stocks in general with hopes that a Covid-19 vaccine will boost the global economy.

“The top banks will all benefit from a strong global economic recovery that will boost jobs, credit card spending, and drive business lending,” Mr Moya added.

HSBC’s fortunes have further improved on expectations that President-elect Joe Biden will take a softer stance on China following rising tensions and a US trade war that began in 2018.

Incumbent Donald Trump has been keeping the pressure on China, and on Wednesday the Senate passed a bill that places restrictions on Chinese firms listing in the US.

Cost-cutting

HSBC is currently pushing ahead with major restructuring of its global banking operations.

Chief executive Noel Quinn said the bank would “accelerate” an earlier restructuring plan, which includes the axing of 35,000 jobs.

It is also weighing up a complete exit from retail banking in the US to focus on its more profitable businesses in Asia, according to sources quoted by the Financial Times.

Mr Quinn has pledged to go “further and faster on our cost and risk-weighted asset reduction programmes”, after setting aside $7.7bn for potential loan losses during the pandemic.25-year low

In September, HSBC’s share price fell to its lowest level since 1995 amid allegations of money laundering.

In 2013 and 2014 the bank allowed fraudsters to transfer millions of dollars around the world even after it had learned of their scam, leaked secret files show.

HSBC says it has always met its legal duties on reporting such activity.

The bank also became embroiled in a political battle over its support of China’s national security law in Hong Kong. leading it be lambasted by both the US and UK.

By: _BBC bussiness

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Covid brainwave: ‘I turned my office into a cyclists’ cafe’

Lanka Talents Creation — Wed, 02 Dec 2020 06:26:08 +0000

The hospitality industry has been left reeling after two national lockdowns and, although England is just emerging from the second one, things aren’t necessarily looking better. The introduction of new tiered restrictions has been described in some quarters as a “mortal blow” for an industry “bearing the brunt of the pain”.

Bruce Tate, 39, was in a bad place after the first lockdown.

His business in Newcastle, called Need Music, which handled live bookings for pubs and weddings, was forced to close, and he wasn’t entitled to financial support from the government because he drew his income as company dividends.

But while contemplating his future, sitting at a picnic table outside his office, he had a “light bulb” moment.

A cyclist whizzed past. This was normal. The office garden overlooks Route 72, also known as Hadrian’s Cycle Way, one of the UK’s most popular cycle routes.

He suddenly thought: what if he turned this area, which his business was renting anyway, into a cafe, capitalising on the passing trade on wheels?

A few physical adjustments were necessary to make the idea possible.

Bruce created some covered wooden seating areas, added a serving hatch to his office kitchen, and Route 72 Cafe opened in July.

As predicted, cyclists have provided regular custom, stopping off for simple refreshments like cheese toasties, beans on toast and paninis.

In time Bruce added to the menu homemade pies and pulled pork sandwiches, made by his wife.

One particularly profitable day saw a group of 100 riders drop by, en route from Newcastle to Wylam.

Bruce got some of his old clients to play gigs during the summer – many now work as delivery drivers.

The new business was gaining momentum and his investments were beginning to
pay off when the new tiered restrictions arrived in the autumn,
followed by a second national lockdown in November.

With lockdown now over, Newcastle is in tier three which means the cafe can
open for takeaways only and Bruce has chosen to open only at the
weekends for now.

He remains an optimist despite the huge upheavals to his life and business.

“I will come out of this pandemic stronger than I went in,” he says.
“Hopefully I will have two successful businesses, instead of one.”

His advice to other people in the hospitality industry is to try different
things with your existing resources and skills, but to build your new
business around the restrictions – however frustrating that can be.

Hospitality in crisis

The hospitality industry includes businesses such as restaurants, cafes,
pubs, bars, nightclubs, entertainment venues and hotels.

These types of businesses have lost more than 600,000 jobs this year, according to UK Hospitality.

The trade body estimates that previously expected annual growth of 5% has
turned into a 40% contraction in 2020, due to the coronavirus pandemic.

What jobs are available at the moment?

Husband-and-wife team Chris and Jessica knew their jobs in hospitality were lost in March

Jessica Bond-Gallagher trusted her husband’s cooking enough to let him do the

catering for their wedding with nearly 200 guests. Then again, he is a
professional chef. That was back in August 2019. Little did she know her
husband’s skill in the kitchen would also get them through coronavirus.

The couple both have careers in hospitality. Jessica, 29, works as a hotel manager, and Chris, 30, as a chef.

In March this year they took the first steps towards a long-term dream,
which was to open a restaurant together in Staffordshire, where Jessica
grew up. She had landed a job managing a lounge bar there, while Chris
had a job offer to be head chef at a gastropub in neighbouring Cheshire –
this meant they could both move from their temporary home in Cambridge.

“When Boris [Johnson] announced people had to avoid pubs, clubs and bars we immediately knew our jobs were lost,” says Jessica.

Furthermore,
they weren’t on the payroll for their new roles yet, so they didn’t
anticipate any government help. “I remember just saying, ‘We have to do
something,'” says Jessica.

What they did was set up Gallagher’s Home Kitchen.

They cleared out their kitchen in their house to make it resemble a commercial one.

They wanted to deliver food to people stuck at home during lockdown and
thought there would be extra demand because of fears of food shortages.
At first Chris just focused on making simple tray bakes.

They reached out to their local network of friends before trying social
media to find customers. Jessica managed the orders and personally
delivered them in a “military operation”.

Deliveroo and Uber Eats were an inspiration, explains Chris. “They showed people
would buy food this way. But they also didn’t serve our rural area, so
there was a gap in the market.”

The demand was clearly there, so they scaled up the operation by renting a
kitchen in a rugby club. Chris created a menu offering a different main
dish for each day of the week, focusing on familiar favourites like
lasagne and lamb stockpot.

On their first day in March they took one order. By the end of summer they
were delivering 40 to 50 meals a day. The profits were more than enough
to pay their bills and the couple also gave out some free meals to the
elderly and NHS workers.

In September they downsized their successful lockdown enterprise into a
once-a-month supper club, and used the money they made to secure
something approaching their original dream: a grab-and-go deli shop on
the High Street of the market town of Leek, Staffordshire.

“We want to reinvigorate our local High Street,” says Chris, “there’s a lot of good will for independent shops.”

“In a way Covid was a blessing,” says Jessica, “in that it pushed us forwards, otherwise we’d still be in our old jobs.”

In south-east London another entrepreneur is pursuing a food dream, though he is learning from scratch.

Every Tuesday Andrew Woodhouse gets up at 3.30am to drive to Billingsgate Market. He buys a consignment of fresh salmon and takes it home, where he fillets it and leaves it to cure in trays of salt. He’s finished by 6am. Then he can begin his day job.

This is Andrew’s “new normal”. He is an out-of-office fishmonger, thanks to Covid-19.

Since university the 27-year-old had worked in the financial events industry, organising conferences around the world.

These came to an abrupt halt when coronavirus struck.

“I was furloughed over the summer, which I expected, but I didn’t want to waste my time sitting around,” he explains. So he decided to work on a business idea inspired by a childhood passion.

He used to go coarse fishing on the River Mole near his home in Hampton, southwest London, catching carp, trench and pike.

By his twenties, he was fly fishing, and went on salmon fishing holidays as far afield as Iceland and North America.

In lockdown he decided to turn his catch into his product, selling smoked salmon, which he would prepare himself.

image captionThe salmon typically smoke for 24 hours

He built his own salmon smoker in his garden after researching some instructions online, and converted his basement into a curing room. “My flatmates weren’t too keen on smelly fish lying around,” Andrew admits.

He has registered with the council as a food business and found a steady stream of customers by posting on Instagram the and Nextdoor app. At his peak he was fulfilling around 100 orders a month.

It was hard work over the summer when he devoted himself full-time to the start-up, but the profits topped up his wages back to 100% (from the 80% furlough rate).

Andrew is now back working full-time from home organising virtual conferences, but still running his salmon business.

His advice for other entrepreneurs who are juggling paid employment and start-ups is this: “You might feel time is the only thing stopping you, but you can always make time depending on what scale you want your business to operate. Why not give it a go?”

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