Amid speculation that the White House had killed it, the FDA issued a promised guidance Oct. 6 on what it will take to get an emergency use authorization (EUA) for a COVID-19 vaccine.

TORONTO – Health Canada has approved a portable COVID-19 test kit which began as a testing regime for identifying pathogens, microbes and viruses in the European food and natural products industry. The Hyris Bcube developed by Guelph, Ontario-based Songbird Life Science Inc., in partnership with London, U.K.’s Hyris Ltd., is described as a portable DNA-based “laboratory in a box” for coronavirus testing in large urban spaces as well as more remote, indigenous communities in Canada’s north.

Medtronic plc’s winning streak continued this week with the announcement that the U.S. FDA had given its nod for new one-month of dual-antiplatelet therapy (DAPT) labeling with an expanded indication for high bleeding risk (HBR) patients implanted with the Resolute Onyx drug-eluting stent (DES). The approval is based on results from the Onyx ONE Clear Study that evaluated about 1,500 complex HBR patients on one-month DAPT treated with Resolute Onyx.

The COVID-19 pandemic has done little to encourage bipartisan comity in Washington, and the Oct. 2 hearing of the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis reflected that partisan tension. Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar noted, however, that the department is doing its best to cooperate with oversight of the vaccine program by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), but that the nearly three dozen GAO requests for oversight have come at a difficult time.

Genetron Holdings Ltd., a Beijing-based precision oncology company, has gained breakthrough device designation status from the U.S. FDA for its blood-based, next-generation sequencing test for the early detection of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The test, called HCCscreen, is intended for individuals at high risk for HCC due to chronic hepatitis B virus infection or liver cirrhosis.