Drug approvals

Health workers participate in a COVID-19 vaccine delivery system trial in Hyderabad, India, Saturday, Jan. 2, 2021. India tested its COVID-19 vaccine delivery system with a nationwide trial on Saturday as it prepares to roll-out an inoculation program to stem the coronavirus pandemic. Saturday's exercise included necessary data entry into an online platform for monitoring vaccine delivery, along with testing of cold storage and transportation arrangements for the vaccine, the health ministry had said.(AP Photo/Mahesh Kumar A.)

FILE - In this March 16, 2020 file photo, a pharmacist gives Jennifer Haller, left, the first shot in the first-stage safety study clinical trial of a potential vaccine for COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, at the Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute in Seattle. Tens of thousands of Americans have volunteered to test COVID-19 vaccines, but only about half of them got the real thing. Now, with the first vaccine rollouts and a surge in coronavirus infections, experts are debating what to do about the half that got a dummy shot. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File)

Medical student Mara Karcher vaccinates a resident Ella Holdenried of Sankt Verena nursing home in Strassberg, Germany, Wednesday, Dec. 30, 2020. German authorities have reported more than 1,000 coronavirus-related deaths in one day for the first time since the pandemic began. The national disease control center, the Robert Koch Institute, said Wednesday that 1,129 more deaths were reported over the past 24 hours. (Felix Kaestle/dpa via AP)

Dr. Estefania Zevrnja gets a shot of Russia's Sputnik V vaccine for COVID-19 at Dr. Pedro Fiorito Hospital in Avellaneda, Argentina, Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2020. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

Surgeon General of the U.S. Jerome Adams, left, elbow-bumps Emergency Room technician Demetrius Mcalister after Mcalister got the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccination at Saint Anthony Hospital in Chicago, on Tuesday, Dec. 22, 2020. (Youngrae Kim/Chicago Tribune via AP, Pool)

People queue in line to wait for coronavirus testing while maintaining social distancing at Seoul Plaza in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Dec. 18, 2020. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

FILE - In this May 3, 2020, file photo, the setting sun shines on the Supreme Court building in Washington. As coronavirus cases surge again nationwide, the Supreme Court late Wednesday, Nov. 25, temporarily barred New York from enforcing certain attendance limits at houses of worship in areas designated as hard hit by the virus. The court’s action won’t have any immediate impact since the two groups that sued as a result of the restrictions, the Catholic church and Orthodox Jewish synagogues, are no longer subject to them. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)

An employee of Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, receives one of the first COVID-19 vaccines at the medical center, Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2020. Wake Forest Baptist received its first shipment of the Pfizer vaccine on Monday morning. Ten employees received the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine Tuesday. Additional employees will be given the vaccine in the coming days. (Walt Unks/The Winston-Salem Journal via AP)

A man walks by an electronic stock board of a securities firm in Tokyo, Wednesday, Dec. 16, 2020. Shares rose in Asia on Wednesday after revived hopes for more aid for the U.S. economy broke a four-day losing streak on Wall Street. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)

FILE - In this Tuesday, Dec. 8, 2020 file photo, a nurse holds a phial of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at Guy's Hospital in London. As Canadians, Britons and Americans begin getting immunized with a German-developed vaccine against the coronavirus, pressure is building on the European Medicines Agency to approve the shot made by Pfizer Inc. and German company BioNTech. Those countries all approved the COVID-19 vaccine under emergency use rules, meaning it is an unlicensed product. But the EMA approval process for coronavirus vaccines is largely similar to the standard licensing procedure that would be granted to any new vaccine, only on an accelerated schedule. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein, Pool, File)