HONG KONG – South Korea’s Osang Healthcare Co. Ltd. became the first Korean company to receive the U.S. FDA’s emergency use authorization (EUA) for its COVID-19 test kit. In a letter dated April 18, 2020, the FDA informed Osang of its authorization for the company’s Genefinder COVID-19 Plus Realamp Kit.

Case Western Reserve University spinout Synapse Biomedical Inc. has received emergency use authorization from the U.S. FDA for its Transaeris diaphragm pacing system (DPS) device to prevent and treat ventilator-induced diaphragm dysfunction (VIDD).

An April 15 U.S. FDA stakeholder call revisited several themes of interest in connection with diagnostics for the COVID-19 pandemic. However, Tim Stenzel, director of the agency’s Office of In Vitro Diagnostics and Radiological Health, said that while the agency has not yet authorized a home sample collection kit, “we do think it’s going to happen very soon.”

The collection of nasal and throat swab samples to detect the presence or absence of the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 has proven problematic on a few fronts, particularly in the U.S. The swabs themselves often have become scarce and difficult to obtain, while health care workers are routinely risking their own health commonly in the absence of proper protective equipment. In addition, sampling difficulties have largely been blamed for a very high false negative rate that could be as much as 25%.

Since April 10, 2020, the FDA has issued emergency use authorizations (EUAs) to several companies that make blood purification devices that can clear excess cytokines in the blood of patients with COVID-19. Monmouth Junction, N.J.-based Cytosorbents Corp.; Lakewood, Colo.-based Terumo BCT Inc.; and Marker Therapeutics AG, a subsidiary of Marker AG, of Zug, Switzerland, have all recently received EUAs for use of their products in adults with confirmed COVID-19 infections who are admitted to intensive care.

The U.S. FDA’s routine guidance agenda may be badly disrupted by the COVID-19 outbreak, but the agency continues to pump out guidances and emergency use authorizations (EUAs) directed to the pandemic. While the FDA has included only one serological test under the diagnostic EUA paradigm, Rep. Diana DeGette penned a letter inquiring into when the agency intends to move more decisively on serological tests, arguing that the absence of action on this front endangers the nation’s economic health as well as the public’s health.

PARIS – Europe has turned into the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, seeing more than 50% of the cases observed worldwide. In fact, whereas the COVID-19 pandemic has begun declining in China where it originated, there are 400,000 cases of coronavirus worldwide, including more than 200,000 infected by SARS-CoV-2 in the 55 sovereign states in continental Europe, where they are mourning more than 18,000 deaths.

The U.S. FDA has granted an emergency use authorization (EUA) to Cepheid Inc., of Sunnyvale, Calif., for a rapid molecular diagnostic to detect SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The Xpert Xpress SARS-CoV-2 test is designed for the qualitative detection of the novel coronavirus and runs on the company’s automated Genexpert systems, with a turnaround time of about 45 minutes.

Abbott Laboratories, of Abbott Park, Ill., is the latest company to receive emergency use authorization (EUA) from the U.S. FDA for a test to detect SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic. The company said it is shipping 150,000 Realtime SARS-CoV-2 tests immediately to existing customers in the U.S., with plans to produce 1 million tests a week by the end of the month.