The latest policies from Beijing show that the Chinese government is readying its own new vaccines and drugs for COVID-19 in a bid to gradually ease some of the strictest pandemic restrictions globally, but progress is mixed and domestic reported infections are surging to their highest level since March 2020.

With the approval of Nuvaxovid, the UK and the EU now each have five COVID-19 vaccines at their disposal. Meanwhile, the European Medicines Agency has given an estimated timeline for the approval of candidate vaccines from Valneva and Sanofi Pasteur, and is looking at which therapeutics could be effective against the Omicron variant. Russia says its Sputnik V vaccine has now been granted full regulatory approval there.

Evidence that the new variant dulls drugs and vaccines’ efficacy creates uncertainty for 2022, but new products are in the wings.