Americans should prepare for coronavirus spread in U.S., CDC warns Top U.S. public health officials with the CDC said that Americans should prepare for the spread of coronavirus across the country. “It’s not so much a question of if this will happen anymore but rather more a question of exactly when this will happen and how many people in this country will have severe … [Read more...]

Moderna first to start drug trial against COVID-19 Moderna (Cambridge, MA), a biotechnology company focused on discovery and developed based on messenger RNA, is the first biopharma to launch a drug trial on humans for an investigational drug against COVID-19. Moderna’s messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine, mRNA-1273, has been shipped to the National Institute of Allergy and … [Read more...]

Global outbreak causes pandemic fears as cases jump outside of China Fears of a global pandemic grew over the weekend as cases jumped in countries outside of China. Fifty people have died in the Iranian city of Qom from the coronavirus this month, according to Iran’s ILNA news agency. Iran had originally reported its death toll at 12. The 50 deaths date back to Feb. 13. Also, … [Read more...]

Infected Americans from quarantined Japanese cruise ship were flown to U.S. against CDC advice On Monday, 328 Americans were flown back to the U.S. wearing surgical masks and gloves after weeks in quarantine aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan. However, test results showed that 14 of them were infected with the novel coronavirus and the U.S. State Department had … [Read more...]

China reports sharp drop in new cases, but doubts re-emerge over data The Hubei province at the center of the novel coronavirus outbreak reported a steep drop in new cases. However, another change in how China diagnoses infections raised concerns about the reliability of the data. The China death toll tops 2,000 and cases top 75,000. Initially, Chinese authorities were using … [Read more...]

Texas manufacturer caught in coronavirus supply chain panic Prestige Ameritech (Fort Worth, TX), a full-line domestic surgical mask manufacturer, was producing 600,000 masks each day but struggling to meet demand as the number of coronavirus cases in China skyrocketed in the past week. CEO Mike Bowen was receiving cold calls on his cell phone from people saying they … [Read more...]

Premier Inc. to host webinar tomorrow: "State of Supply Chain and COVID-19" Premier Inc. (Charlotte, NC) announced it will host a webinar tomorrow, Feb. 19, 2020, “State of Supply Chain and COVID-19,” at 11 a.m. ET. The Premier Disaster Response and Disruption Team, as well as the Premier Safety Institute will provide an executive briefing on the state of supply chain … [Read more...]

FDA response to active supply chain surveillance amid outbreak The FDA states that it is aware of the likely impact on the medical product supply chain, including potential disruptions to supply or shortages of critical medical products in the U.S., due to the coronavirus outbreak. The FDA states that it is not waiting for drug and device manufacturers to report shortages, … [Read more...]

Coronavirus more contagious than flu, less deadly The new strain of coronavirus, now formally named COVID-19, is “a lot more contagious” than the flu, according to AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot. “What we have all learned is that the virus leads to a lower mortality than the flu virus, but it’s a lot more contagious, the virus is very contagious,” Soriot told CNBC. At least 19 … [Read more...]

Coronavirus cases spike in China; death toll over 1,300, caseload over 60,000 Doctors in China have adopted a new way of diagnosing the novel coronavirus, leading to a spike of 23% in confirmed cases and a jump in the number of deaths blamed on the virus. China previously only counted a coronavirus case as confirmed when a person tested positively for the virus, but the … [Read more...]