As restrictions begin to ease around the world, the Life Sciences industry prepares to deal with the impending ramifications. While progress is being made on vaccines and treatments as new surgery guidelines are developed, the potential long term consequences of the pandemic must be addressed. The following is a small sampling of the COVID-19 updates compiled, reviewed and posted in real-time by our SmartTRAK analysts, who are constantly monitoring the situation and sifting through the noise to present the most relevant news to our subscribers:
During a Wells Fargo call, Dr. Ashish Jah, Dir of Harvard Global Health Institute, projected the US economy will ramp up to 80% open by fall w/ an increase of elective procedures in the summer to 100% or higher. He doesn’t anticipate a fall return of COVID halting procedures.
Based on conversations with healthcare and industry professionals, SmartTRAK expects deferred spine procedures to reschedule more quickly than many other procedures due to the non-elective nature of spine cases – particularly those w/ neurological deficit or progressive pain.
Pfizer working alongside German drugmaker BioNTech injected its potential COVID-19 vaccine in first human participants last week and hopes to test up to 360 people in its clinical trial. If the vaccine is found safe and efficacious it could be available starting in Oct. CNBC.com
After successful emergency use of umbilical stem cell for COVID-19 cases, RESTEM, a cell-based therapeutics company, has received approval from the FDA for a 60-pt Phase I/IIa study using hUCMSCs to treat pts w/ severe COVID-19. The study will be the first of its kind in the US.
In an interview w/ Bloomberg News, Sanofi CEO Paul Hudson indicated that since the US was 1st to fund the Company’s research for a COVID-19 vaccine, it may get it first, triggering outrage in France, w/ President Emmanuel Macron requesting to meet w/ Hudson on May 19.
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, ~2MM pts/mo in England were visiting ERs but that number dropped to ~916.6K in April. Also, the number of pts seeking routine treatment and surgery such as knee and hip replacement dropped by 1/3 in Mar from ~305.4K to ~207.8. BBC.com
The COVID-19 crisis has put the spotlight on infection control w/in hospitals and further reinforces the importance of the infection preventionist (IP) in the “new normal” healthcare setting. IC webinar
Pursuant to cancellation of the 2020 ACSM Annual Meeting & World Congresses (May 26-30), the Program Committee released new info re delivery of content initially planned and has introduced ACSM 2020 Virtual Experience, to be avail in early summer (no exact dates were provided).
According to a Kaiser Family Foundation report, nearly 27MM Americans may have lost their employer-based health insurance because of COVID-19 related layoffs. An estimated 12.7MM may be eligible for Medicaid w/ another 8.4MM qualifying for subsidies. CNN.com
US FDA issued an alert to the public concerning early data suggesting Abbott ID NOW point-of-care testing for COVID-19 is potentially returning inaccurate results. FDA has received 15 adverse event reports about the device. FDA.gov
In NY, NJ and LA, 25 hospitals are receiving the most funding from the $12B in federal bailout funds being sent out by the US Dept of Health and Human Services. The funds are being provided to 395 hospitals that provided inpt COVID-19 care for 100 or more pts. Beckers Hospital
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