LONDON – EU health ministers have given the go-ahead for the European Commission to negotiate COVID-19 vaccines contracts on behalf of all 27 member states, approving the use of a €2.3 billion (US$2.6 billion) emergency fund for down payments.

HONG KONG – India has been slowly easing restrictions on the export of its med-tech products, giving hope to domestic manufacturers looking to meet global demand for their output. “We are pleased to share that many of the routine IVD diagnostic kits falling under HSN code 3822 have been removed from export restrictions and a few specific items related to COVID-19 testing retained,” Rajiv Nath, the forum coordinator for the Association of Indian Medical Device Industry (AIMED), told BioWorld recently.

Partners Adaptive Biotechnologies Corp., which is based in Seattle, and Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft Corp. have started sharing an open database that details the immune response in COVID-19 patients with researchers and public health officials. The project is analyzing thousands of de-identified patient blood samples submitted from institutions around the world and is dubbed ImmuneCODE.

The U.S. FDA granted San Diego-based Illumina Inc. an emergency use authorization (EUA) for the first COVID-19 diagnostic test that uses next-generation sequencing (NGS). In addition to diagnosing infection with SARS-CoV-2, the COVIDSeq test can help researchers track mutations in the coronavirus.

Due to the pressing challenges of COVID-19, Health Canada is giving drug companies six more months to prepare for major reforms to its 1987 Patented Medicines Regulations.