PARIS – Therapixel SA, of Nice, France, has obtained 510(k) clearance from the U.S. FDA for its Mammoscreen technology, a software platform based on artificial intelligence (AI) and used by radiologists for reading screening mammograms. “Obtaining FDA clearance is the result of working with radiologists over the past three years in order to develop a powerful tool providing relevant assistance in their day-to-day work,” Matthieu Leclerc-Chalvet, CEO of Therapixel, told BioWorld.

The U.S. FDA has rewritten the emergency use authorization (EUA) for the Laboratory Corp. of America Holdings Inc. (Labcorp) COVID-19 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test to allow for diagnostic testing of those who are asymptomatic and those who have no reason to suspect they are infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

“Nothing to see here” seems to be the general reaction to the four executive orders President Donald Trump signed Friday in an effort to reduce U.S. prescription drug prices. Two of the orders – one on importing drugs from Canada and the other on kicking the safe harbor out from under the rebates pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) get from drug companies – instruct Health and Human Services (HHS) to continue, or resume, rulemaking on those measures.

The FDA approved Kite Pharma Inc.’s Tecartus (brexucabtagene autoleucel, KTE-X19), the first cell-based gene therapy for adults with mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) who have not responded to or who have relapsed following other kinds of treatment.

The question of screening for the COVID-19 pandemic continues to absorb the interest of both the U.S. FDA and test developers, and Tim Stenzel, director of the FDA’s Office of In Vitro Diagnostics and Radiological Health (OIR), said in a July 22 webinar that the FDA is “very interested” in a fingerstick test at the point of care for screening purposes, adding that the agency sees any such applications as a priority.