The digital medicine company Physiq Inc. has received a contract from the NIH to develop an artificial intelligence (AI)-based index that can provide an early warning that a patient with COVID-19 is in decline and needs medical treatment. The index, called the COVID-19 Decompensation Index (CDI) Digital Biomarker, will run on Physiq’s existing Accelerateiq computing platform, analyzing physiological data from FDA-cleared wearable devices to create a personalized baseline for patients who have tested positive for COVID-19.

Next-generation sequencing may help provide clinicians with a speedier answer as to the identity of the second pathogen, a service that may prove critical to suppressing the fatality rate in this and in future pandemics, according to Robert Schlaberg, chief medical officer of IDbyDNA Inc., of Salt Lake City.

The diagnostic industry in the U.S. and elsewhere has scrambled to keep up with the COVID-19 pandemic, and one of the key developments will be a test that can be used at home without medical supervision. However, Tim Stenzel, director of the U.S. FDA’s Office of In Vitro Diagnostics and Radiological Health, said on the Sept. 16 diagnostic town hall that the agency is keen on authorizing such a test, but has yet to receive any emergency use authorization filings. “We want to see a home test submission, and we’re willing to be very flexible here,” Stenzel said.

Researchers at the University of California at San Diego have used RNA-targeted CRISPR to reverse symptoms in an animal model of myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1). They reported their findings in the Sept. 14, 2020, issue of Nature Biomedical Engineering.

Spurred by reports of biopharma executives exercising stock options in conjunction with announcements about COVID-19 vaccine developments and government contracts, U.S. lawmakers want to close the loopholes that make such actions legal.

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.

The U.S. FDA has been easing gently down the road of real-world evidence (RWE) in regulatory decision-making, and the case of the Watchman left atrial appendage device is instructive in this regard. Robert Shipley, of Boston Scientific Corp. (BSX), said on webinar hosted by the Advanced Medical Technology Association that the FDA changed gears and agreed to a registry for a post-approval study for the first generation Watchman, but added that the use of registry data and other RWE for approval of a next-generation device is as yet more aspirational than practicable.

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.

What’s the plan? The U.S. CDC is being asked that question a lot these days – not just about COVID-19, but also about preparing for what could be a tough influenza season as flu bugs circulate with the coronavirus.