The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee met again June 23 to discuss the federal government response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and one clear signal that emerged from the hearing is that Congress will have to provide annual funding to build a sustainable infrastructure for vaccine development and manufacture if the nation is to deal appropriately with the next pandemic.
DUBLIN – Translate Bio Inc. is the first beneficiary to gain from Sanofi SA’s massive $11.7 billion addition to its balance sheet, following its recent disposal of its holdings in long-time partner Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. Lexington, Mass.-based Translate Bio is getting $300 million up front, another $125 million in equity investment and up to $1.9 billion in milestones under a major expansion of an existing agreement with Paris-based Sanofi to develop mRNA-based vaccines for infectious disease.
PARIS – Stilla Technologies SAS, of Villejuif, France, is supplying a new, cost-effective approach for COVID-19 testing by combining its digital polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technology with the group testing method. “This approach greatly increases testing capacity and meets the highest quality standards,” Rémi Dangla, co-founder and CEO of Stilla Technologies, told BioWorld.
Beverly, Mass.-based Lexagene Holdings Inc. has developed a genetic analyzer with multiplex testing capability that would enable it to determine whether a patient has COVID-19, influenza or another respiratory infection with one sample. The Lx Analyzer uses a proprietary quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) method to automatically test for up to 27 pathogens simultaneously, all in about one hour.
Med-tech happenings, including deals and partnerships, grants, preclinical data and other news in brief: Aduro, Align Technology, American Telemedicine Association, Aramark, Archerdx, Bristol-Myers Squibb, China Medical Holdings, Foxconn, Gelesis, Gingko Bioworks, Harvey Nash, Inivata, Medstar Health, Medtech Innovator, Medtronic, Monitorme, Natera, Nephros, One Medical, Philips, Quest Global, Usgi.
The U.S. FDA detailed which kinds of SARS-CoV-2 tests are getting top priority, with access to rolling, rapid reviews for emergency use authorization (EUA) during the unfolding pandemic. The agency is aiming to authorize point-of-care and at-home tests to better distribute the use of testing in various locations. It also is looking at automated and high-throughput tests that can offer analysis of larger batches of tests at one time.
Med-tech happenings, including deals and partnerships, grants, preclinical data and other news in brief: BGI, BioIQ, Cigna, DNA Genotek, Illumina, Inspire Medical Systems, Lantheus, Metabolon, Nanostring, Orasure, Ortho, Phosphorous, Progenics, Respira, Sd Biosensor, Truvian, Yuyu Pharma.
