Conventional wisdom has it that recent expansions in coverage of telehealth will never be fully reversed. The addition of artificial intelligence (AI) into telehealth could solve several issues faced by doctors and hospitals. There is some concern, however, that the blending of AI and telehealth will industrialize the practice of medicine, dissuading patients from seeking critically needed care.
LONDON – Two months after the launch, the World Health Organization (WHO) has laid out the spending plans for its push to accelerate development and production of COVID-19 vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics.
DUBLIN – Emer Cooke, named this week as the next executive director of the EMA, is the first woman to lead the organization since its creation in 1994. She is due to take up the post in November, but her appointment must first be ratified by the European Parliament’s Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI). She is due to present a statement to the group on July 13.
BEIJING – China this week approved both the country’s first mRNA vaccine candidate and its first recombinant protein subunit vaccine to begin clinical trials to fight COVID-19.
Med-tech happenings, including deals and partnerships, grants, preclinical data and other news in brief: Anyplace MD, Applied DNA Sciences, Biocodex, Biocodex Microbiota Foundation, Biostem, Brainlab, Device Access UK, Intersect ENT, Nexstim, Phunware, Venus Concept.
Biopharma happenings, including deals and partnerships, grants, preclinical data and other news in brief: Alimentiv, Caiac, DBV, Diversigen, Helix, Hemogenyx, Medicinova, Novan, Siga, Vaxart.
Biotech companies with COVID-19 vaccine candidates are collaborating with Indonesian companies for overseas trials and to ensure wider availability when approved. Sinovac Biotech Co. Ltd., for example, is collaborating with Indonesia’s PT Bio Farma to test and manufacture its vaccine candidate there.
The U.S. FDA’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic may have got off to a rocky start, but the agency’s device center has changed course rather quickly several times in recent months. Tim Stenzel, director of the FDA’s Office of In Vitro Diagnostics and Radiological Health, said on the latest COVID-19 town hall that the push is now on several relatively novel points of emphasis, including high-throughput testing, a technology that may prove critical to corralling the SARS-CoV-2 virus when flu season arrives later this year.