Concerns about the escalating global spread of COVID-19 panicked the markets big time at the close of the month. With investors rushing to the sidelines, it only took five days for the Dow Jones Industrial Average to drop more than 10% from its all-time high, getting close to the 30,000 mark.
Med-tech happenings, including deals and partnerships, grants, preclinical data and other news in brief: Alibaba, Bactiguard, Co-Diagnostics, Convatec, Diasorin, Implandata, Insulet, Lucid Diagnostics, Neogenomics, Pavmed, The Technology Partnership Vigilenz, Vivalnk.
Under steady pressure to accelerate development of vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 and treatments for COVID-19 as the global death toll reached 3,085 people on the afternoon of March 2, biopharma companies continued to detail progress, including in updates at a White House meeting between pharmaceutical executives and administration officials, including President Donald Trump.
New York and Rehovot, Israel-based in vitro diagnostics startup Todos Medical Ltd. is developing blood tests for the early detection of cancer and neurodegenerative diseases using Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. Now the company is looking to apply the technology in diagnosing infections, including the novel coronavirus, COVID-19.
COVID-19 is bringing more pressure to bear on Congress to pass S. 2723, the Mitigating Emergency Drug Shortages (MEDS) Act, which has been sitting in the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee since Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) introduced it in October 2019 – a few months before the novel coronavirus emerged.
LONDON – The EU launched a “Corona” response team, bringing together oversight of all the separate strands put in place to control the virus, as the infection spread to 18 of 27 member states, with 2,100 confirmed cases and 31 deaths.
The U.S. FDA has posted an immediately-in-effect policy document regarding clinical laboratory development of diagnostics for the pathogen responsible for COVID-19 disease. The agency said the policy allows a lab to use any diagnostic before the FDA has completed an exhaustive review of the test.
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