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As countries scramble to test for the novel coronavirus, a Chinese company has become a go-to name around the world...BGI Group, described in one 2015 study as “Goliath” in the fast-growing field of genomics research, is using an opening created by the pandemic to expand its footprint globally. In the past six months, it says it has sold 35 million rapid COVID-19 testing kits to 180 countries and built 58 labs in 18 countries. Some of the equipment has been donated by BGI’s philanthropic arm, promoted by China’s embassies in an extension of China’s virus diplomacy...But as well as test kits, the company is distributing gene-sequencing technology that U.S. security officials say could threaten national security. This is a sensitive area globally. Sequencers are used to analyse genetic material, and can unlock powerful personal information...READ MORE

The Trump administration is taking steps to give telehealth a broader role under Medicare, with an executive order that serves as a call for Congress to make doctor visits via personal technology a permanent fixture of the program...The order President Donald Trump signed...applies to one segment of Medicare recipients — people living in rural communities. But administration officials said it’s intended as a signal to Congress that Trump is ready to back significant legislation that would permanently open up telehealth as an option for all people with Medicare...READ MORE

Seqirus announced Thursday it has begun shipping its portfolio of seasonal influenza vaccines to customers in the U.S. for the 2020/21 influenza season. Seqirus is one of the world’s largest influenza vaccine companies and is well-positioned to supply up to 60 million doses* for the U.S. market this year, depending on demand...“Influenza vaccination is critical every year, and it is more important than ever this season as it can help reduce the risk of co-infection from seasonal influenza and COVID-19 and minimize the burden of flu on the healthcare system to preserve capacity for patients with COVID-19 and other serious disorders,” said Gregg Sylvester, MD, Chief Medical Officer at Seqirus. “Our cell-based and adjuvant vaccine technologies are designed to address influenza prevention challenges...against seasonal influenza.”...READ MORE

AstraZeneca has been granted protection from future product liability claims related to its COVID-19 vaccine hopeful by most of the countries with which it has struck supply agreements...With 25 companies testing their vaccine candidates on humans and getting ready to immunise hundred millions of people once the products are shown to work, the question of who pays for any claims for damages in case of side effects has been a tricky point in supply negotiations...“This is a unique situation where we as a company simply cannot take the risk if in ... four years the vaccine is showing side effects,” Ruud Dobber, a member of Astra’s senior executive team, told Reuters...READ MORE

Whether or not the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine helpful in treating patients with COVID-19 has been a topic of debate for months now...“Recommendations of many of the people including doctors. many think it is extremely successful,” the President said...In Reno, one local doctor says the drug has helped several dozen of his patients...“Frankly, everyone that I have treated has gotten better”...Doctor Bruce Fong is Medical Director at Sierra Integrative Medical Center in south Reno. He says when paired with azithromycin and zinc, hydroxychloroquine has been effective...Many of the nation’s top medical experts do not agree, and Fong feels he knows why...“There was nobody bothering us about it and trying to put up regulations about it prior to President Trump saying something about it. It seems like his political enemies try to make him look bad.”...READ MORE

Hospital groups are imploring either the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services or Congress to step in and help providers facing loan repayments happening as soon as Aug. 1...The...deadline has sparked concerns from some experts and hospital groups that worry providers couldn’t afford to lose out on Medicare revenue as they combat revenue losses caused by the pandemic. While the program was intended to be a short-term solution, COVID-19 surges are proving that is not the case for some hospitals...At the onset of the pandemic in March, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services extended the advance payment program, which has been used previously to help providers beset by disasters...CMS had given out $100 billion of loans before suspending the program...The goal behind the program is to help providers stay afloat and was meant to be a short-term solution, as repayment starts 120 days after a provider gets the first payment...READ MORE

Never before have prospective vaccines for a pathogen entered final-stage clinical trials as rapidly as candidates for Covid-19...The colossal impact of the coronavirus is motivating the speed, opening a spigot of funding and inspiring research teams around the world to join the hunt. But the astonishing pace of the progress is also a consequence of the virus itself: It is, scientifically speaking, an easier target for potential vaccines than other pathogens, and a prime candidate for cutting-edge vaccine platforms new to scientists’ toolkits...Vaccines typically take years, if not decades, to reach people; the record now is four years for the mumps vaccine. Here’s what has propelled the Covid-19 endeavor to eclipse prior efforts so far...READ MORE
A familiar family
An acute, not chronic infection
Cutting-edge approaches
Money, money, money
Regulatory nimbleness
The challenges ahead

The planned introduction of a wide-ranging bill granting certain businesses enhanced immunity from COVID-19 related death or illness lawsuits has drawn the ire of officials from hospitals and other health care facilities, who say it unfairly opens them up to the threat of lawsuits...the enhanced liability protections envisioned in the bill would be granted to casino resorts, government agencies, nonprofits and other kinds of business while explicitly carving out health care facilities...That exemption...has drawn a sharp rebuke from the Nevada Hospital Association and other health care providers, who say it would prohibit them from transferring patients between facilities or prohibit visitors from coming to visit patients...READ MORE

Fourteen recent graduates from St. George’s University arrived in Nevada last month to start their residencies, including 11 in the Las Vegas Valley. And all but two are in family medicine or internal medicine, both areas where Nevada is in short supply of physicians...Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, which “really stresses a hospital system, particularly from a manpower standpoint,” having residency training programs is particularly important, said Dr. G. Richard Olds, president of St. George’s University...One big benefit is that graduates of the international medical school...are far more likely to work in low-income, rural and majority-minority geographic areas, Olds said...They’re also more likely than U.S. medical school graduates to go into primary care, an area where there’s a significant shortage of providers nationwide. The situation is particularly bad in Nevada, which ranks 48th nationwide for the number of primary care doctors per 100,000 residents, according to a January UNR report...READ MORE

The Eastman Kodak Co. (traditionally associated with cameras, film, printers and other imaging technology) announced the launch of its new Kodak Pharmaceuticals arm, which will produce various pharmaceutical ingredients. The $765m funding is the first action occurring under the president’s executive order, which authors the International Development Finance Corp. (DFC) and Department of Defense (DoD) to collaborate on COVID-19 response...”Kodak is stepping up to help onshore pharmaceutical production and this DPA action will allow the modernized Strategic National Stockpile to have domestic resiliency. Once Kodak ramps up we will have the ability to tap into that capacity for domestic use​."...READ MORE