The articles in this collection are from BioWorld’s ongoing coverage of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. They are available for free with registration. Note that we have added three critical tables, which are continuously updated:
Unless there’s a last-minute meeting of the minds, it looks like any extension of the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) five-year intellectual property waiver for COVID-19 vaccines will be shelved, at least for now.
COVID-19 severity remains open to several questions. Researchers at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) have revealed how SARS-CoV-2 causes acute inflammation instead of the symptoms of a common cold. This effect could be initiated by the peptide fragments of the coronavirus released when the host eliminates the virus, which can form pro-inflammatory complexes that trigger an amplified immune response.
Researchers at ETH Zurich have identified a proteomic signature that could recognize long COVID six months after acute infection. Biologically, the signature indicated that the complement system remained active in patients with long COVID six months after infection. Translationally, it could lead to a diagnostic test for long COVID, and suggests that targeting the complement system could be a therapeutic approach to prevent or treat the disorder.
An FDA culture that discourages scientific disagreement with U.S. administration policies may be a perennial problem regardless of the party in power. That’s one of the between-the-lines takeaways from a Jan. 3 letter the Republican leadership of the House Energy and Commerce Committee sent to FDA Commissioner Robert Califf – along with a stern warning that the agency had better respond in a timely manner.
Six months out from the World Health Organization ending the global health emergency brought on by the pandemic, there’s no need for the World Trade Organization to expand a five-year intellectual property (IP) waiver for vaccines to COVID-19-related drugs, devices and diagnostics.
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has been aggressively pursuing fraud perpetrated on the American public in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic, but the formal end of the U.S. public health emergency might seem to suggest that these efforts would be winding down. Nonetheless, deputy attorney general Lisa Monaco has announced that DOJ will open two new strike force offices under the agency’s COVID fraud operations, making clear that the agency is still intent on chasing down fraudsters across the U.S.
Med-tech happenings, including deals and partnerships, grants, preclinical data and other news in brief: Angiodynamics, Body Vision, Cue, Femasys, Hemosonics, Invo, Kral Medical, Prism Technologies, Paragon Care, Shockwave Medical, Tandem.
Anbio Biotechnology Ltd. launched the Anbio AF-100S, an automated, compact and affordable fluorescent immunoassay (FIA) solution that it hopes will transform the field of clinical diagnostics and empower healthcare providers. The AF-100S FIA is a handheld point-of-care immunodiagnostic solution that provides rapid, accurate and reliable results for a wide range of analytes.
A day after a U.S. House committee, on a party-line vote, advanced two bills to reauthorize emergency preparedness programs, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee voted 17-3 July 20 to send its bipartisan reauthorization of the Pandemic and All Hazards Preparedness Act to the Senate floor with a do-pass recommendation.