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WHO declares coronavirus a public health emergency

Jan. 30, 2020
By Michael Fitzhugh
The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared a "public health emergency of international concern" over the global outbreak of novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), reversing a week-ago decision by its International Health Regulations Emergency Committee. The move comes "not because of what is happening in China, but because of what is happening in other countries," said WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, noting his confidence in China’s capacity to control the outbreak. "Our greatest concern is the potential for the virus to spread to countries with weaker health systems, and which are ill-prepared to deal with it," he said.
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Chinese flag, Wuhan virus alert button on keyboard

NCoV’s spread is rapid, but so are communications, countermeasures

Jan. 29, 2020
By Nuala Moran
LONDON – It has gone from “pneumonia of unknown cause” affecting 44 patients in Wuhan, China, on Jan. 5, 2020, to spark a global health alert, with the World Health Organization (WHO) now looking likely to declare the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, 2019-nCoV, a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) less than four weeks later.
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DNA NGS genome sequencing

CMS loosens restrictions on next-gen sequencing in coverage memo update

Jan. 28, 2020
By Mark McCarty
The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has significantly relaxed the national restrictions on coverage of next-generation sequencing for cancer, affirming that early-stage breast and ovarian cancer patients will be covered. However, Medicare administrative contractors can cover tests that have not been reviewed by the FDA, a move that should also significantly boost utilization for makers of next-generation sequencing systems in clinical labs.
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Hands holding puzzle pieces with digital globe overlay
Precision Medicine World Conference

Verily highlights diabetes care, Project Baseline even as related partnerships are restructured

Jan. 24, 2020
By Stacy Lawrence
SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Diabetes seems likely to be the first area to really show concrete products and results for the ambitious Verily Life Sciences, which is the med-tech business of Mountain View, Calif.-based Google parent Alphabet Inc. However, its two major diabetes partners both have been rethinking the relationship.
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Gavel and scales

Securities class action suits a growing fact of life for life sciences

Jan. 23, 2020
By Mari Serebrov
Whether large or small, or based in the U.S. or abroad, life sciences companies are an increasingly attractive target for shareholder suits. The number of securities fraud class action suits filed in the U.S. in 2019 across all industries totaled 404, just one more than the 403 cases filed in 2018 and down from the peak of 412 in 2017, according to a new Dechert LLP report.
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Cancer cell and DNA
Precision Medicine World Conference

Cancer genomic tests often aren’t done to guideline; germline data presents unique issues

Jan. 23, 2020
By Stacy Lawrence
SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Just as it does with treatments, the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) offers detailed guidelines on genomic testing by cancer type. These are key in determining what physicians can prescribe routinely and what insurers will cover. But those guidelines aren’t followed regularly outside a major research hospital setting, thereby obviating access to tumor genetic information that could help to better guide treatment. Even if current guidelines are followed, physicians and patients can get information back from the tests that neither party is prepared to process.
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Precision Medicine World Conference

Thiel calls for improving research grant, regulatory processes to enhance scientific innovation

Jan. 22, 2020
By Stacy Lawrence
SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Peter Thiel is not a fan of incremental science. The high-profile venture capital investor, who invests across technology and the life sciences via various vehicles, including the Founders Fund, suggested that as academic and government bureaucracies have scaled up and rigidified over the last 50 or 60 years, that has eroded the ability of researchers to pursue innovative science.
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Cancer cell and DNA
J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference

Guardant embraces biopharma research, screening to maintain momentum

Jan. 15, 2020
By Stacy Lawrence
SAN FRANCISCO – Guardant Health Inc. has set the standard for liquid biopsy. That success has catapulted the Redwood City, Calif.-based company from an IPO in the fall of 2018 to a current valuation in excess of $7 billion. It has made its name – and much of its revenue – with its Guardant360 test, a molecular diagnostic test that assesses 74 cancer-related genes from the circulating tumor DNA to aid in designing the best treatment for advanced cancer patients with solid tumors.
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