According to the latest annual overview published by trade association France Biotech, French med-tech, biotech, and e-health companies have adapted rapidly to the COVID-19 pandemic. Many French health care companies have faced real difficulties in all areas of procurement, R&D, and sales. As of February, a quarter of these French companies were redirecting their research activity towards the coronavirus.
With COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing still scaling up and the scarcity of some supplies, most of the vaccine doses available so far have been distributed in 75 countries while 115 countries are still waiting, World Trade Organization (WTO) Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said at the March 9 Global C19 Vaccine Supply Chain and Manufacturing Summit.
The voluminous American Rescue Plan – the second largest stimulus package in U.S. history – has something for everyone. Almost. The $1.9 trillion package that passed the Senate over the weekend and is expected to be passed by the House March 9 failed to extend the current moratorium, set to expire April 1, on the 2% Medicare sequestration.
LONDON – Oxular Ltd. has raised $37 million in a series B, enabling the company to take OXU-001, its long-acting treatment for diabetic macular edema (DME) into phase II development later this year.
PERTH, Australia – Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration is proposing changes to its fees and charges and is asking stakeholders for feedback on three different proposed fee structures for the 2021-2022 financial year.
In signing an executive order (EO) on strengthening American manufacturing Jan. 25, President Joe Biden made it clear that the order is aimed at more than infrastructure. While Biden’s Build Back Better Recovery Plan calls for investing hundreds of billions of dollars in buying American products and materials to modernize the nation’s infrastructure and increase its competitiveness, “it also means replenishing our stockpiles to enhance our national security,” the president said.
One of the side effects of COVID-19 is the acceleration of a shift in health care delivery that is changing how drug and device companies market their products to doctors. There’s no going back to the commercial model where having a sales rep call on a doctor was the way to market a product, Rita Numerof, CEO and co-founder of Numerof & Associates, said during a Jan. 21 webinar on the impact the pandemic has had on drug and device detailing.
When it comes to leveling the playing field for foreign-based biopharma and medical device companies, China has made a lot of promises, but delivering on those promises is what matters. Throughout its annual assessment for Congress of China’s commitment to World Trade Organization principles, the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) noted the many promises China has made over the years that have yet to be kept.
The U.S. FDA has granted IDE approval to the cardiac device startup Foldax Inc., to initiate clinical testing of its Tria mitral surgical heart valve. Patient enrollment is expected to begin in early 2021.
Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology see a future where long-lasting hydrogel injections replace eye drops and surgery in the management of glaucoma, the most common cause of irreversible blindness in the world. The treatment would be delivered every six months, in line with glaucoma patients’ regularly scheduled visits to the ophthalmologist.
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