PREVIEW: Nobel Week kicks off in Sweden with announcement of medicine laureate

STOCKHOLM, October 7. /TASS/. The Nobel Week will open in the Swedish capital with the announcement of the name of the prize winner in the field of physiology or medicine. In the coming days, the winners of other nominations will be announced.
On October 8, the Nobel Committee will announce its decision in Physics, on October 9 in Chemistry, on October 10 in Literature, and on October 11 the world will learn the winner of the Peace Prize. The winner of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, established in 1968 by the State Bank of Sweden, will be announced on October 14.
The 2023 Nobel Prize in Medicine has been awarded to Katalin Kariko of Hungary and Drew Weissman of the United States. The scientists were awarded for the discoveries that “were critical for developing effective mRNA vaccines against COVID-19 during the pandemic that began in early 2020.” The developed technology of mRNA modification allows to create a vaccine not only against COVID-19, but also against other infectious diseases. It can also be used to create therapeutic vaccines against cancer.
The Nobel Prize in Medicine has been awarded 114 times since 1901. A total of 227 people have been named laureates, including 13 women.
The prize is awarded on December 10, the day of Nobel’s death. The ceremony will take place at the Stockholm Philharmonic Hall, where the laureates will receive a gold medal with a portrait of the prize’s founder and a diploma from King Carl XVI Gustaf on a stage decorated with flowers.
The winners also receive a cash prize of 11 million kronor (1.09 million dollars). Due to the weakening of the krona in recent years, the prize is not as large as it used to be for foreign laureates. Less than two decades ago, the amount was almost 1.3 million dollars, although at that time it was one million dollars less in Swedish kronor. In recent years, the amount has been less than a million dollars several times, and in 2016 it was only 870,000 dollars.