Lumiradx Ltd. has secured CE marking for its HbA1c test for diabetes. The point-of-care (POC), automated fingerstick assay is run on the Lumiradx portable platform and designed to provide connected results in under seven minutes, with a reportable range of 20-130 mmol/mol HbA1c (4.0% to 14.0% HbA1c).
The Biden administration recently reported that a new round of free rapid tests for the SARS-CoV-2 virus is available to the public, a development that coincides with a new surge of the latest sub-variant of the omicron variant. However, the administration is also expected to renew the public health emergency (PHE) for the pandemic, even as the White House continues to press Congress for another $22 billion in pandemic-related funding.
The pandemic exponentially amplified the move to more patient-driven health care with at-home monitoring, wearable medical devices and telemedicine. Testing has arguably seen the greatest shift, led by emergency use authorizations (EUA) for dozens of rapid tests for SARS-CoV-2. Laboratory Corp. of American Holdings Inc. (Labcorp) stands to benefit even more from the trend with an EUA for an over-the-counter multiplex respiratory virus test and the launch of an at-home collection kit for testing hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) this week.
An unknown U.K. biotech, RQ Biotechnology Ltd., has emerged from stealth mode with a $157 million licensing deal with Astrazeneca plc for its monoclonal antibodies, aimed at protecting vulnerable and immunosuppressed people against SARS-CoV-2.
Henley Ion LLC has released data showing its filter-less respirator device can remove more than 99% of SARS-CoV-2 bioaerosols. The mask prototype developed by physician and surgeon Julian Henley, uses micronized electrostatic precipitation (mEP) to remove infectious aerosol particles from both inhaled and exhaled air. Results from the study have been published in the Viruses journal and confirm the device can provide equivalent protection from infectious bioaerosols as N95 respirators.
For the first time since the early weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, global deaths caused by the disease have fallen to their lowest point, as immunity against the SARS-CoV-2 virus and its variants continues to build. Infections and deaths appear to be decelerating, an optimistic sign that the pandemic may be nearing an end.
First results from the U.K. Cov-Boost trial, looking at responses to a fourth dose of an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine, show that antibody levels increase more than after the third dose, confirming the precautionary move to give the most vulnerable a second COVID-19 booster in advance of immune response data being available.
For the first time since the early weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, global deaths caused by the disease have fallen to their lowest point, as immunity against the SARS-CoV-2 virus and its variants continues to build. Infections and deaths appear to be decelerating, an optimistic sign that the pandemic may be nearing an end.
A team at South Korea’s Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST) developed a new technique to easily visualize viruses using an optical microscope.
The U.S. FDA’s device center reported April 18 that it has revoked the emergency use authorizations (EUAs) for five tests for the SARS-CoV-2 virus, a seemingly significant reduction in the inventory of tests for the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the sponsor of the test in each of these revocations requested that the EUA be revoked, an indication that the market for some types of these tests is saturated.
