LONDON – Oncimmune Holdings plc has won government funding to apply its autoantibody biomarker technology to develop a COVID-19 immune profiling tool for triaging patients and predicting response to therapies and vaccines in development against the virus. The company will cross reference serum samples from 3,000 COVID-19 patients against its library of 800 SARS-CoV-2 related antigens and peptides to identify autoantibodies that characterize the range of immune responses to the infection.
Med-tech happenings, including deals and partnerships, grants, preclinical data and other news in brief: Ac Immune, Alliance Family of Companies, Applied DNA Sciences, Battelle, Caretaker Medical, Cerner, Clinical Laserthermia Systems, Columbia University, DNA Labs International, Freedom Innovations, Haliodx, Induction, Medalliance, OSU Wexner Medical Center, Osmind, Ottobock, Pacific Edge, Paltown Development Foundation Proteor, Providence, Southwest Labs, Stratus, Tegria, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Votis.
Regulatory snapshots, including global submissions and approvals, clinical trial approvals and other regulatory decisions and designations: Abbott, Cartiheal, GE Healthcare, Varian.
The latest global regulatory news, changes and updates affecting medical devices and technologies, including: ICER cost models going global; Canada prepares for ICH Q12; HHS partners on Lyme innovation; AMA adds codes for COVID-influenza testing; MedPAC concerned about post-pandemic telehealth; CMS: CLIA audits yield cease-and-desist letters.
LONDON – The first confirmed case of COVID-19 reinfection in the U.S. has been reported, with a patient testing positive for two distinct SARS-CoV-2 strains within 48 days, while testing negative in between contracting the two infections.
Regulatory snapshots, including global submissions and approvals, clinical trial approvals and other regulatory decisions and designations: Beckman Coulter, Genmark Diagnostics, Oxford Nanopore.
Keeping you up to date on recent developments in diagnostics, including: Improving sensitivity of COVID-19 tests; Deep learning algorithm helps triage suspected COVID-19 cases; Cancer image analysis tool incorporates HER2 biomarker assay.
The U.S. FDA will no longer review lab-developed tests (LDTs) for the SARS-CoV-2 virus under the emergency use authorization (EUA) program, a change that will eliminate any prospect of immunity from liability for these tests. The FDA’s Tim Stenzel, director of the Office of In Vitro Diagnostics and Radiological Health, announced the news on the weekly COVID-19 testing town hall, but the change was simultaneously unveiled in the FDA’s Q&A for testing.
Lumos Diagnostics Holdings Pty. Ltd. scooped up AU$25 million (US$17.9 million) in an oversubscribed pre-IPO ahead of its anticipated 2021 listing on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX). The funds will be used to expand manufacturing operations in California and Florida and to grow the commercial footprint of Febridx, a rapid point-of-care (POC) test that can determine if a person has a viral or bacterial infection within 10 minutes.
