Washington, DC…The U.S. Food and Drug Administration continues to play a critical role in accelerating medical countermeasures to treat and prevent COVID-19. As part of the response to this pandemic, the agency is taking the lead on a national effort to facilitate the development of, and access to, two investigational therapies derived from human blood. […]
Washington, DC…U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered the following remarks today on the Senate floor regarding the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act: “It has only been 65 days since the first American tested positive for the new coronavirus on our soil. “In barely two months, this pandemic has upended our […]
Washington, DC…The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued the first emergency use authorization for a point-of-care COVID-19 diagnostic for the Cepheid Xpert Xpress SARS-CoV-2 test. “The test we’re authorizing today will be able to provide Americans with results within hours, rather than days like the existing tests, and the company plans to roll it out […]
Washington, DC…Today, President Donald J. Trump declared that a major disaster exists in the State of Washington and ordered Federal assistance to supplement State, tribal, and local recovery efforts in the areas affected by the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic beginning on January 20, 2020, and continuing. The President’s action makes Federal funding available for […]
Seattle, WA…A Phase 1 clinical trial evaluating an investigational vaccine designed to protect against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has begun at Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute (KPWHRI) in Seattle. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, is funding the trial. KPWHRI is part of NIAID’s Infectious Diseases […]
Basel, Switzerland…Roche today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for the cobas® SARS-CoV-2 Test. It is intended for the qualitative detection of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19 disease, in nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal swab samples from patients who meet COVID-19 clinical and/or epidemiological criteria for […]
Washington, DC…President Donald Trump said Wednesday in his national address that he is suspending all travel between the U.S. and Europe for 30 days beginning Friday as the US seeks to combat a viral pandemic. The UK will be exempt from the ban. The ban is expected to go into effect this Friday.
Geneva, Switzerland…Good afternoon. In the past two weeks, the number of cases of COVID-19 outside China has increased 13-fold, and the number of affected countries has tripled. There are now more than 118,000 cases in 114 countries, and 4,291 people have lost their lives. Thousands more are fighting for their lives in hospitals. In the […]
Secaucus, NJ…Quest Diagnostics (NYSE: DGX), the world’s leading provider of diagnostic information services, has launched a coronavirus (COVID-19) test service. The new test service aids the presumptive detection of nucleic acid in respiratory specimens of patients meeting CDC’s clinical criteria for COVID-19 testing. Quest was in position to receive specimens for testing, and begin to […]
“War is a game that is played with a smile. If you can’t smile, grin. If you can’t grin, keep out of the way till you can.” ~ Winston Churchill
