The first Senate hearing for the nomination of Xavier Becerra as Secretary of Health and Human Services included the predictable questions about his qualifications, given his position as attorney general for the state of California. However, the candidate repeatedly emphasized price transparency for both hospitals and drug manufacturers, the latter of which are still laboring under the perception that price gouging is a common practice.
HONG KONG – China is steadily greenlighting more COVID-19 vaccines and drugs to go deeper into the clinic, giving the country a growing arsenal against the disease. To date, China’s National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) has approved a handful of drugs and 16 domestically developed COVID-19 vaccine candidates for trials, up from 11 in September 2020.
Med-tech happenings, including deals and partnerships, grants, preclinical data and other news in brief: Adaptive Biotechnologies, Astarte Medical, Evasc Neurovascular, Genesiscare, Icometrix, Labcorp, Medcura, Neuroone, Perkinelmer, Personal Genome Diagnostics, Pixcell, Soliton, Stevara, Transenterix, Zimmer Biomet.
In the shadow of the COVID-19-related deaths of more than half a million Americans and far more deaths across the world, the Biden administration is reportedly rethinking its position on a proposal before the World Trade Organization to waive intellectual property protection for SARS-CoV-2 vaccines.
Regulatory snapshots, including global drug submissions and approvals, clinical trial approvals and other regulatory decisions and designations: Agilent, Elicio, Hoth, Iaso, Innovent, Neoimmunetech, Noven, Ocugen, RDIF, Regeneron, Sanofi, Scpharmaceuticals.
Lexagene Holdings Inc. has successfully configured its Miqlab system to detect the U.K. and South African variants of SARS-CoV-2. The open-access point-of-care system can simultaneously screen for multiple respiratory pathogens and identify COVID-19 strains. Lexagene started studies to support its filing for U.S. FDA emergency use authorization (EUA) in late December 2020. If authorized, it would be the first open-access point-of-care (POC) device to gain an EUA.
COVID-19 vaccine developers should begin testing their vaccines against emerging variants now and assessing booster regimens, the FDA said in an update to its October guidance on emergency use authorizations (EUAs) for the vaccines.
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