TORONTO – Whether it’s President Trump obtaining the drug Regeneron or COVID-19 test kits fast tracked in the U.S. and Canada, this has been the year of temporary emergency approvals for drugs and medical devices. What is sometimes overlooked are permanent programs like Canada’s Special Access Program and the U.S.’s Expanded Access Program, designed to provide therapeutics to patients who have exhausted every avenue for a cure or relief from a devastating disease.
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.
Keeping you up to date on recent developments in diagnostics, including: A case for pooled testing of SARS-CoV-2; FIT as effective as colonoscopy in ruling out suspected colorectal cancer; Looking to comparative genomics analysis to explain COVID-19 susceptibility.
The U.S. FDA moved the goal posts for other companies with its expansion of the emergency use authorization for Helix Opco LLC’s COVID-19 test to include both unsupervised self-collection of samples and testing of asymptomatic individuals. The new indications promise to make the Helix test the preferred tool for schools, universities, and work settings by reducing costs and increasing flexibility.
Shares of early cancer detection company Exact Sciences Corp. soared Tuesday morning on news it is acquiring two liquid biopsy screening companies, Thrive Earlier Detection Corp. and Base Genomics Ltd., for $2.56 billion and selling $869 million of common stock to institutional investors.
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.
Day Zero Diagnostics Inc. has reported that data presented at IDWeek highlighted the promise of the company’s new class of diagnostics as it works toward its goal of detecting superbug infections quickly. The company ultimately is hoping to get regulatory signoffs in both the U.S. and Europe for its technology.
RSS
