Researchers at the University of California at San Francisco have developed a method to diagnose any known pathogen from any body fluid within a day – or, depending on the sequencing method, within a few hours. For an unknown pathogen, the method spits out its nearest known relative.
LONDON – After a year in the mill, the U.K. National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has put proposals for how it intends to evaluate drugs, devices and diagnostics in the future out for consultation.
HONG KONG – Aprinoia Therapeutics Inc. is poised to start phase III clinical trials for its positron emission tomography (PET) imaging tracer 18F-APN-1607 in China, after receiving the green light from the National Medical Products Administration.
If a new federal rule withstands politics and potential court challenges, U.S. health care prices may finally be freed from their historic black box. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, along with the Departments of Labor and the Treasury, issued the Transparency in Coverage final rule Oct. 29 requiring most private health plans to disclose pricing and cost-sharing information so Americans will know in advance how much they will have to pay for prescription drugs, medical devices and other health care products and services.
PERTH, Australia – Neuroscience technology company Cogstate Ltd. and Japanese pharmaceutical company Eisai Co. Ltd. signed a deal under which Eisai will have global development rights and exclusive commercialization rights of all cognitive function tests developed by Cogstate, including the Cogstate Brief Battery (CBB) for use in health care and other markets.
LONDON – Three large scale population surveys conducted between late June and the end of September have shown the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in England declined by 26.5% over three months. The findings rest on the results of more than 350,000 self-administered lateral flow blood tests that were carried out at home by volunteers who were randomly selected from general practitioner registers.
PERTH, Australia – During the COVID-19 pandemic, 90% of Australia’s clinical trials were put on hold, and the market cap of biotech and medical device companies on the Australian Securities Exchange dropped 5% to AU$11 billion (US$7.78 billion), according to a recent report by Australia’s Medical Technologies and Pharmaceuticals Industry Growth Centre.
Intervenn Biosciences said it has identified stark differences in the glycoproteomic profile of COVID-19 patients who became very sick and people infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus who were either asymptomatic or experienced only minimal effects. The contrast could help clinicians better understand the biological mechanisms of the disease and triage patients at risk of responding detrimentally to early treatments and more intensive care.
HONG KONG – Novartis AG was cited during the recent 2020 KoNECT-MOHW-MFDS International Conference as an example of a biopharma firm staying ahead of the artificial intelligence curve. During this week’s 2020 Bioplus Interphex Korea conference, Won Kim, head of innovation at Novartis Korea, described some of the firm’s latest forays into AI, including negotiations with potential partners to develop an AI image analysis solution for retinal diseases.
PERTH, Australia – Melbourne-based Telix Pharmaceuticals Ltd. has submitted its first new drug application to the FDA for TLX591-CDx, a radiopharmaceutical targeting prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) for imaging prostate cancer using positron emission tomography (PET).