Category Archives: COVID-19 Updates
The Point Kick Off
On Monday, government leaders, including Lt. Governor Spencer Cox, held a press conference announcing the launch of planning efforts to redevelop the site of the Utah State Prison (The Point) in Draper. Many of our industry leaders are participating on The Point’s Education, Research and Innovation working group – Randy Rasmussen (former BioFire CEO), Gary […]
RenalytixAI Reaches Milestone of KidneyIntelX Commercial Testing with Mount Sinai Health System
Salt Lake City-based RenalytixAI, today announced the commercial launch of the KidneyIntelX clinical test reporting platform within the Mount Sinai Health System. This means that KidneyIntelX risk assessment of progressive decline in kidney function or kidney failure, including education support for treating clinicians, is now commercially available for patients with early stage diabetic kidney disease […]
Co-Diagnostic Enters into Agreement with Arches Research to Expand COVID-19 Testing
Co-Diagnostics, a Salt Lake City company that was out of the gate early with a molecular COVID-19 test, announced this week that it has entered into an agreement with another Salt Lake City based company, Arches Research, a CLIA laboratory and subsidiary of PolarityTE to expand Arches’ COVID-19 testing services using Co-Diagnostics’ Logix Smart™ COVID-19 […]
Drug Companies Pledge to Stand with Vaccine Science
The CEOs of nine pharmaceutical manufacturers working on COVID-19 vaccines – AstraZeneca, BioNTech, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Moderna, Novavax, Pfizer, and Sanofi – signed a pledge Tuesday to “uphold the integrity of the scientific process as they work towards potential global regulatory filings and approvals of the first COVID-19 vaccines.” In the pledge, the […]
Inherent Biosciences Wins $256K NSF Grant to predict COVID-19 infection severity and treatment response
Inherent Biosciences, a biotechnology company headquartered in Salt Lake City has announced a $255,959 award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to study epigenetic biomarkers to predict patient response to COVID-19. The SBIR Phase I project aims to develop an onsite, clinical test to screen incoming patients potentially infected with COVID-19. The test would predict […]
Utah Leads Together Accountability Framework
This Utah Leads Together Accountability Framework presents Utah’s strategic, data-driven, and concentrated effort to protect the lives and livelihoods of all Utahns. The framework includes a clear mission, two major goals, six supporting objectives, and a variety of lead measures and strategies. A scorecard of measurable targets motivates progress. Together with a refined accountability structure, […]
HHS Move Upends FDA Role in Laboratory-Developed Test Regulation
By Adam Bonislawski for GenomeWeb NEW YORK – In a surprise move, the US Department of Health and Human Services said on Wednesday that it had determined the Food and Drug Administration would not require premarket review of laboratory-developed tests without notice-and-comment rulemaking. The announcement, which took many in the lab industry aback, appeared to […]
COVID-19 Grant Relief Program Updates as of 8/12/2020 9:20 am
Shop In Utah: $35M (+ $10M added from ComRent) Opened Monday, July 27 – closed August 7, 2020, at 1:30 p.m. Shop in Utah number of applications received: 872 Shop in Utah total award amount requested: $42,344,434 Shop in Utah number of awards: 653 Shop in Utah total award amount: $26,790,444 Average award amount: $41,023 […]
House Bill Introduced to Provide COVID-19 Economic Relief to Startups
Bipartisan legislation to help entrepreneurs and startups navigate the economic perils of COVID-19, has been introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives. The bill, the IGNITE American Innovation Act (H.R. 7917), introduced by Reps. Dean Phillips (D-MN) and Jackie Walorski (R-IN), will allow many small companies that have not benefited from CARES Act relief to […]
At White House Roundtable, CSL Behring CEO Paul Perreault Urges Plasma Donations to Fight COVID-19
At a July 30 White House Roundtable, plasma industry leader and CSL Behring (CSL) CEO Paul Perreault, urged people who have recovered from COVID-19 to consider donating plasma to help develop a potential treatment for people with serious complications from COVID-19. Representing the plasma industry, Perreault pointed to the unprecedented CoVIg-19 Plasma Alliance – an […]
Senate Republicans Release HEALS Act – COVID-19 Stimulus Package
Earlier this week, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell released the Republican version of a fourth COVID-19 package (or as some say, a second round of a CARES Act stimulus bill). The bill, titled the Health, Economic Assistance, Liability Protection, and Schools (HEALS) Act is actually a collection of bills. Highlights include another round of $1200 […]
President Trump Signs Drug Pricing Executive Orders, Touts “Most Favored Nation” Pricing
Last Friday, President Trump signed four executive orders aimed at lowering drug prices, including an order that would set up a “most favored nation” (MFN) pricing model for Medicare Part B drugs, effectively imposing foreign price controls on critical medicines for seniors. The goal, Trump said, is to “end global freeloading on the backs of […]
