A Sept. 16 Senate hearing revisited the Trump administration’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the CDC took the opportunity to post a vaccine distribution plan. CDC director Robert Redfield advised the committee, however, that sufficient quantities of vaccine to cover everyone in the U.S. might not be available until the third quarter of 2021, adding that now is the time to stand up a distribution network for a vaccine that will require cold-chain storage.
Med-tech happenings, including deals and partnerships, grants, preclinical data and other news in brief: Axim Biotechnologies, Baxter International, BioIQ, Biomérieux, Care G.B., Corza Health, General Biologicals, Invotek, Labcorp, Mediwound, Medtronic, Myomo, Nanox, Opgen, Pacgen, Pathogenx, PhysIQ, Premier, Solutions in Critical Care, Takeda, Tempus, Todos, Varian, Vibrent Health, Vitalconnect, Vivera.
Siemens Healthineers AG snagged a key role in the mystery playing out across the world's pandemic stage – what do antibody test results mean in terms of immunity to SARS-CoV-2 and how do different tests assessing different proteins compare? The U.S. CDC and the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission tapped the Erlanger, Germany-based company to take the lead in developing a process to standardize antibody assays.
Regulatory snapshots, including global submissions and approvals, clinical trial approvals and other regulatory decisions and designations: Cerapedics, Controlrad, Eurobio Scientific, Fibralign, GE Healthcare, Genmark Diagnostics.
Med-tech happenings, including deals and partnerships, grants, preclinical data and other news in brief: Applied Spectral Imaging, Astrazeneca, Avita Therapeutics, Bio-Techne, Guided Therapeutics, Kantaro Biosciences, Luminultra, Meridian, Mimedx, Mount Sinai Health, Natera, Nevro, Shandong Yaohua Medical Instrument, Staar Surgical, Telo Genomics, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Transenterix.
The rescission order directing the U.S. FDA to abandon regulation of lab-developed tests is scarcely three weeks in the past, but two senior managers at the FDA are pushing back in an editorial appearing in the New England Journal of Medicine. The FDA’s Jeff Shuren and Tim Stenzel wrote that there is “a need for a common legislative framework” to ensure clinical tests are accurate and reliable, which implicitly concedes that the statute does not authorize the agency to regulate lab-developed tests.
Keeping you up to date on recent developments in diagnostics, including: Deep learning aid for diagnosing TB in HIV patients; Self-collected swabs vs. health care worker collected for COVID-19 testing; SCAD vs. plaques in heart attacks; Diagnosing neuroblastoma in children.
