LONDON – As the death toll passed 1,000 and the number of confirmed cases reached 42,000, the World Health Organization on Feb. 11 convened 400 scientists at a global research and innovation forum to draw up an R&D blueprint for “pathogen X,” now officially named COVID-19.
Med-tech happenings, including deals and partnerships, grants, preclinical data and other news in brief: 7D Surgical, Autobio Diagnostics, Cepheid, China Grand Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Holdings, Co-Diagnostics, Elite Medical Technologies, Endonovo Therapeutics, Future Medical Equipment, Medtronic, Mobidiag, Oncosec Medical, Precisionmed, Probo Medical, Sirtex Medical, Seaspine Holdings, Sona Nanotech, Valeritas Holdings, Zealand Pharma.
HONG KONG – A team of researchers at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) claim to have invented the world’s fastest portable 2019-nCoV diagnostic device. From sampling to testing, the device is apparently able to detect the novel coronavirus in just 40 minutes. In comparison, the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technology that is currently in use can take between 1.5 to 3 hours. The device draws on the latest microfluidic chip technology from Shenzhen Shineway Hi-Tech Co. Ltd.
BEIJING – Share prices of Chinese biotechs that partner with Gilead Science Inc. have surged in China this week, after the U.S. firm’s remdesivir was identified as the most promising drug candidate to treat 2019-nCoV.
Med-tech happenings, including deals and partnerships, grants, preclinical data and other news in brief: Bgi, Bioventrix, Curetis, Fibroline, Gatt Technologies, MGI Tech, Nano-X Imaging, Quaphaco, Smith & Nephew, USArad Holdings.
The drug screens prompted by the SARS and MERS outbreaks have been useful for quickly identifying drug candidates. But in terms of their epidemiology, “SARS and MERS were different from this coronavirus,” Allison McGeer explained at a Feb. 3 webinar by Evercore ISI.
At this very early point in the emerging 2019-nCoV outbreak, knowledge about the virus is insufficient to predict what shape that outbreak will ultimately take. But knowledge about the virus is accumulating at remarkable speed, and experience with other viruses is helping to shape the response to the newest coronavirus threat. 2019-nCoV, sometimes called Wuhan coronavirus after its source, is the third coronavirus after SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV with the potential to cause serious illness and death that has emerged since the beginning of the 21st century.
Now that U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar has declared a nationwide public health emergency due to the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), HHS is saying it may need more money to help it be as proactive and aggressive as possible in detecting the virus and containing an outbreak.
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