The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has declared a public health emergency in the U.S. over the coronavirus in part because a government diagnostic for the virus yields inconsistent results, a fact that may spur the life sciences to provide a solution.
As the deadly coronavirus continues to spread, countries around the world are scrambling to understand the public health threat and identify and quarantine people who may be infected. To that end, Novacyt SA has launched a molecular test that detects only the 2019 strain of the coronavirus, reducing the chance of false diagnoses.
BEIJING – China will kickstart a phase III trial Feb. 3 to determine whether patients with 2019-nCoV can be treated with Gilead Sciences Inc.’s NUC inhibitor, remdesivir, which was originally developed for Ebola, four days after a U.S. patient was said to have recovered by using the drug candidate.
BioWorld looks at translational medicine, including: Adapting NGS for coronavirus surveillance; Long QT genes mostly short on evidence; Reservoir dogs don’t hunt; Another reason to get a flu shot; Cerebrospinal fluid is early culprit in stroke edema; Different drivers can turn the wheel in glioblastoma’s vicious cycle; From African genomes, big insights with small sample size; Commercial antibodies underwhelm for studies of PP2A; Tau keeps gliomas in check.
BEIJING – The current speed of new developments in the 2019-nCov outbreak is illustrated by a Jan. 28, 2020, press conference in Munich, where Andreas Zapf, head of the infection task force in the Bavarian ministry for health and food safety, briefed reporters on the first confirmed German case.
Biopharma happenings, including deals and partnerships, grants, preclinical data and other news in brief: Aspen, Curevac, Follicum, Fuzionaire, ICER, Nanoviricides, Novartis, Predictive Oncology, Quantitative Medicine, Saromics, Vaxart, Ziopharm.