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A bill that would require a plan for diagnostic testing and public health system integration for COVID-19 and future pandemics was introduced in the U.S. Senate this week.
The bill, the Timely and Effective Systematic Testing (TEST) Act, was introduced by Sens. Cory Gardner (R-CO), Michael... Read More »
The Trump administration filed a notice to withdraw the United States from the World Health Organization, senior officials with the administration confirmed to various news outlets.
The move has been received negatively by key Democratic and Republican lawmakers, as well as leading health... Read More »
A bill designed to strengthen the U.S. government’s counter-terrorism efforts against transnational white supremacy and identity groups was introduced in Congress.
The Countering Global White Supremacist Terrorism Act directs the U.S. Department of State to assess the global threat of the... Read More »
House members of the Northern Border Caucus are pushing for a phased reopening of that United States-Canadian border, which has been shut down in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In all, 29 Congress members, led by caucus co-chairs Brian Higgins (D-NY) and Elise Stefanik (R-NY), called for... Read More »
Expanding on an existing partnership, the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) and Sonica Health announced last week that they will work together to create a wearable patch capable of monitoring for COVID-19 infections.
The device is meant for high-risk clinical... Read More »
Alarmed by heavy U.S. reliance on foreign nations for both its supply of drugs and pharmaceutical products, U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Marco Rubio (R-FL) introduced a bill this week to require a study of that overreliance.
Specifically, the bill would require the Federal Trade... Read More »
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) struck an agreement to secure large supplies of the drug remdesivir from Gilead Sciences.
HHS has secured more than 500,000 treatment courses of remdesivir -- the first authorized therapeutic for COVID-19 -- for U.S. hospitals through... Read More »
A group of U.S. Senators recently called on Senate leadership to include federal funding for HIV/AIDS treatment, prevention, and housing programs in the next coronavirus pandemic response package.
Specifically, the Senators, including Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), are... Read More »
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) Ministry of Health declared this week that an Ebola outbreak which has ravaged the eastern portion of the country since 2018 has finally reached its end.
The news was hailed by global and U.S. health officials, still themselves battling the worldwide... Read More »
The Trump administration will end federal support for 13 community-based COVID-19 testing sites by the end of the month, as the White House looks to other means of financial support for ongoing efforts.
This will particularly impact Texas, which has seen an explosion of cases in recent days,... Read More »
A group of U.S. senators recently introduced legislation designed to modernize the production of medical supplies for frontline healthcare providers and ensure the utilization of the Defense Production Act (DPA) to respond to emergencies.
The Public Health Emergency (PHE) Production Act –... Read More »
The Strategic National Stockpile (SNS), which is tasked with supplementing state and local supplies of antibiotics, vaccines and other critical drugs and medical products, woefully needs a revamp to help the nation better prepare and respond to public health emergencies like the current COVID-19... Read More »
Reckoning with the possibility of bad actors taking advantage of a crisis, House members introduced two bills this week to protect patients from price-gouging on taxpayer funded COVID-19 drugs, avoid monopolies, and strengthen oversight of federally invested research and development funds.
The... Read More »
A panel of public health experts called on Congress to focus on creating a mechanism that would help create vaccines for future pandemics, even as the world is working to cope with the ongoing COVID-19 crisis.
“This pandemic is a harbinger of things to come,” Julie Gerberding, former... Read More »
In an effort to reduce shortages and the reliance on foreign medical supply chains, the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) and Department of Defense (DoD) have teamed up with Corning, Inc. to produce more glass tubing and vials quicker.
In particular, the federal... Read More »
The lack of a cohesive national plan for dealing with COVID-19 was once more brought to the fore last week with the release of a report from the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, which laid out a series of recommendations surrounding antibody studies.
These antibody studies --... Read More »
A group of Republican senators introduced a police reform bill that focuses on accountability and transparency while promoting efforts to find solutions to systemic issues affecting people of color.
The Just and Unifying Solutions to Invigorate Communities Everywhere (JUSTICE) Act is sponsored... Read More »
The Bipartisan Commission on Biodefense is calling for a renewed commitment to fighting COVID-19, urging Americans to protect each other.
“We formed the Bipartisan Commission on Biodefense six years ago because we suspected and subsequently confirmed that our Nation was vulnerable to biological... Read More »
Gary Ludwig, president and chair of the International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC), testified before Congress in June on the need for more federal support local fire and EMS departments.
Ludwig, appearing before the House of Representatives' Committee on Science, Space, and Technology,... Read More »
The Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Mariano Grossi, introduced a new initiative to enhance global preparedness for future pandemics like COVID-19.
The Zoonotic Disease Integrated Action (ZODIAC) seeks to establish a global network to help national... Read More »
Arguing the potential benefits no longer outweigh the health risks involved, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Monday revoked its Emergency Use Authorization for hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine to be used as a treatment for patients with COVID-19.
“We’ve made clear throughout... Read More »
The Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) and Snapdragon Chemistry are teaming up to develop a continuous manufacturing platform to produce a specific raw material for COVID-19 vaccines.
They are developing ribonucleotide triphosphates (NTPs), a critical raw material for... Read More »
U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) inventors John Neilan and Michael Puckette have come up with a breakthrough to treat foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) in livestock.
FMD is a disease that is extremely contagious and afflicts animals with cloven... Read More »
U.S. Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) and Conor Lamb (D-PA) introduced legislation that would require foreign nations to implement systems for reporting and monitoring outbreaks of novel diseases.
In addition, the Never Again International Outbreak Prevention Act (H.R. 7132) would sanction bad... Read More »
The University of Queensland (UQ) has partnered up with CSL and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) to accelerate development, manufacturing, and distribution of a COVID-19 vaccine candidate its researchers pioneered earlier this year.
In an agreement formalized this week,... Read More »
As part of an expansion to their existing partnership, the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) and MODERNATX, Inc. will increase the domestic manufacturing capacity of the mRNA-1273 vaccine, a candidate to stop the spread of COVID-19.
The relationship has been ongoing... Read More »
As part of a validation study, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) publicly posted test performance data from four antibody test kits this week.
This independent performance validation effort is being undertaken alongside the National Institutes of Health’s National Cancer Institute... Read More »
First responders and healthcare workers stand to benefit from a new partnership between the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) and Evidation Health, which are sifting through data from wearable devices to create an early warning algorithm for COVID-19 symptoms.
This... Read More »
As authorized by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act, the United States Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (HHS ASPR) has released an additional $250 million for aid health care systems treating COVID-19... Read More »
U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA) met with officials from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Department of Justice (DOJ), and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) to examine cyberattacks during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The attacks have been targeting federal... Read More »
Chimeron Bio and George Mason University's National Center for Biodefense and Infectious Diseases (NCBID) are teaming up to develop a COVID-19 vaccine.
The vaccine development will be based on Chimeron Bio's ChaESARTM self-amplifying RNA technology. Plus, it will integrate Mason's complimenting... Read More »
Operation Warp Speed, the White House-created program to speed up COVID-19 vaccine candidate development and manufacturing domestically, will benefit from a $628 million expansion of an existing public-private partnership with Emergent BioSolutions Inc., the U.S. Department of Health and Human... Read More »
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) said it will manufacture 1 billion doses of its pandemic vaccine adjuvant system in 2021 to support the development of multiple adjuvanted COVID-19 vaccine candidates.
The pharmaceutical company says its pandemic adjuvant technology could make a significant contribution... Read More »
A new reference panel being offered by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) proposes an additional, independent validation step to guarantee the quality of COVID-19 diagnostic tests.
Since COVID-19 reached U.S. shores earlier this year, many tests have arisen to detect its viral cause:... Read More »
Merck announced a series of actions against COVID-19 this week, joining the fight against the global pandemic through two agreements that further potential vaccines against its viral source, SARS-CoV-2, and a research collaboration intended to create a novel antiviral candidate.
“With our... Read More »
