Archive for month: August, 2020

Medtronic said 18 March it plans to more than double its capacity to make and supply ventilators to fight the global pandemic.
Medtronic, an industry leader in respiratory care and device innovation, said that they had already increased production by more than 40 percent and were on track to more than double its capacity to manufacture and supply ventilators.
The company said it recognizes the acute need for ventilators as life-saving devices in the management of COVID-19 infections. High-performance ventilators play a critical role in the management of patients with severe respiratory illness, such as COVID-19. Without ventilation support, some patients with severe respiratory disease might not survive.
“Medtronic recognizes the demand for ventilators in this environment has far outstripped supply,” said Bob White, executive vice president and president of the Minimally Invasive Therapies Group at Medtronic. “No single company will be able to fill the current demands of global healthcare systems. However, with all manufacturers increasing their production and through partnerships with governments, hospitals and global health organizations, Medtronic is committed to getting more ventilators into the market and to the right locations in the world to help doctors and patients dealing with COVID-19.”
Medtronic produces high performance ventilators for a variety of care settings, including the acute segment (in-hospital patients in intensive care units, emergency departments or on the general care floors) and the sub-acute segment (out of hospital, long-term care facilities or home-ventilated patients).
Medtronic manufactures the Puritan Bennett 980 (PB 980) and Puritan Bennett 840 (PB 840) high performance ventilators in Galway, Ireland, which are primarily designed for critically ill patients in high acuity setting, such as some Covid-19 patients.
In the company’s Ireland ventilator manufacturing facility, the company currently has over 250 employees dedicated to ventilator manufacturing and plans to more than double that number, including transferring staff from other Medtronic sites to support ramp up activities.
Ventilator manufacturing is a complex process that relies on a skilled workforce, a global supply chain and a rigorous regulatory regime to ensure patient safety.
Medtronic said it is prioritizing high risk/high needs areas for ventilator allocation on a weekly basis for global distribution through its supply chain. Covid-19 is a dynamic global issue, and Medtronic will continue to monitor the situation.

Johnson & Johnson has announced the selection of a lead COVID-19 vaccine candidate on which it expects to initiate human clinical studies by September at the latest with the first batches of the vaccine available for emergency use authorization in early 2021.
In addition, the company announced the significant expansion of the existing partnership between the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA).
Johnson & Johnson also said the company will rapidly scale up its manufacturing capacity with the goal of providing a global supply of more than one billion doses of the vaccine.
Through the new partnership, BARDA and Johnson & Johnson together have committed more than $1 billion of investment to co-fund vaccine research, development, and clinical testing. The company says will use its validated vaccine platform and is allocating resources, including personnel and infrastructure globally, as needed, to focus on these efforts.
BARDA is part of the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Commenting on the initiative, Alex Gorsky, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Johnson & Johnson, said: “The world is facing an urgent public health crisis and we are committed to doing our part to make a COVID-19 vaccine available and affordable globally as quickly as possible. As the world’s largest healthcare company, we feel a deep responsibility to improve the health of people around the world every day. Johnson & Johnson is well positioned through our combination of scientific expertise, operational scale and financial strength to bring our resources in collaboration with others to accelerate the fight against this pandemic.”
The company’s expansion of its manufacturing capacity will include the establishment of new U.S. vaccine manufacturing capabilities and scaling up capacity in other countries. The additional capacity will assist in the rapid production of a vaccine and will enable the supply of more than one billion doses of a safe and effective vaccine globally.
Paul Stoffels, M.D., Vice Chairman of the Executive Committee and Chief Scientific Officer, Johnson & Johnson, said: “We are very pleased to have identified a lead vaccine candidate from the constructs we have been working on since January. We are moving on an accelerated timeline toward Phase 1 human clinical trials at the latest by September 2020 and, supported by the global production capability that we are scaling up in parallel to this testing, we expect a vaccine could be ready for emergency use in early 2021.” In addition to the vaccine development efforts, BARDA and Johnson & Johnson have also expanded their partnership to accelerate Janssen’s ongoing work in screening compound libraries, including compounds from other pharmaceutical companies. The company’s aim is to identify potential treatments against the novel coronavirus. Johnson & Johnson and BARDA are both providing funding as part of this partnership. These antiviral screening efforts are being conducted in partnership with the Rega Institute for Medical Research (KU Leuven/University of Leuven), in Belgium.

A small study published 8 April 2020 in Science by researchers in China found that cats are highly susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 and can pass the virus on to other cats via airborne transmission. However, dogs showed low susceptibility, and livestock including pigs, chickens, and ducks were not susceptible to the virus.
They did not study specifically whether cats can pass the virus to humans, although this seems likely as cats can pass the virus to other cats via airborne transmission.
From their findings, the researchers suggest that surveillance for SARS-CoV-2 in cats should be considered as an adjunct to elimination of COVID-19 in humans.>/p>
Two viruses – SARS-CoV 2/F13/environment/2020/Wuhan, isolated from an environmental sample collected in the Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan (F13-E), and SARS-CoV-2/CTan/human/2020/Wuhan (CTan-H), isolated from a human patient – were used in the study.
The researchers first investigated the replication of SARS-CoV-2 in cats. Seven subadult cats (aged 6-9 months) were intranasally inoculated with 105 PFU of CTan-H. Two animals were scheduled to be euthanized on days 3 post infection (p.i.) and 6 p.i., respectively, to evaluate viral replication in their organs. Three subadult cats were placed in separate cages within an isolator. To monitor respiratory droplet transmission, an uninfected cat was placed in a cage adjacent to each of the infected cats.
In the transmission study, viral RNA was detected in the faeces of two virus-inoculated subadult cats on day 3 p.i., and in all three virus-inoculated subadult cats on day 5 p.i. Viral RNA was detected in the faeces of one exposed cat on day 3 p.i. The pair of subadult cats with viral RNA-positive faeces were euthanized on day 11 p.i., and viral RNA was detected in the soft palate and tonsils of the virus-inoculated animal and in the nasal turbinate, soft palate, tonsils, and trachea of the exposed animal indicating that respiratory droplet transmission had occurred in this pair of cats. Antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 were detected in all three virus-inoculated subadult cats and one exposed cat.
They replicated the study in juvenile cats and found “massive lesions in the nasal and tracheal mucosa epitheliums, and lungs”, indicating that SARS-CoV-2 can replicate efficiently in cats, with younger cats being more permissive.
Additionally, and importantly, the study showed that the virus can transmit between cats via the airborne route.
For the study in dogs, five 3-month-old beagles were intranasally inoculated with 105 PFU of CTan-H, and housed with two uninoculated beagles in a room. Oropharyngeal and rectal swabs from each beagle were collected over a series of days.
Viral RNA was detected in the rectal swabs of two virus-inoculated dogs on day 2 p.i and in the rectal swab of one dog on day 6 p.i. However, they note that “infectious virus was not detected in any swabs collected from these dogs”.
Two virus-inoculated dogs showed antibodies. The other two virus-inoculated dogs and the two contact dogs were all seronegative for SARS-CoV-2.
The dog study was repeated in pigs, chickens and ducks and viral RNA was not detected in any swabs collected from these animals or from naïve contact animals. All were seronegative for SARS-CoV-2.
doi: 10.1126/science.abb7015

As the COVID-19 pandemic upends life as people know it, changing daily routines, limiting social interactions and shaking their sense of safety, a mental health experts from U.S. hospital Cleveland Clinic’s Mellen Center is stressing that it is perfectly acceptable to feel sad about all of it.
She points out that grief is a natural response to loss – whether it is the loss of a loved one, or the loss of a sense of normalcy.
“We are experiencing a lot of disappointment right now – in both small and big ways – and grief is going to be a factor,” says clinical health psychologist Amy Sullivan, PsyD, ABPP.
“It’s really important that we process this and stay connected to other people in safe ways,” she adds.
Regarding how people should go about dealing with all of these difficult and unexpected feelings bubbling up, she says there is no right or wrong way. However, she offers four suggestions that can help people to cope with current events.
1. Look through the lens of grief and process emotions
She says that the stages of grief can provide a helpful framework for navigating these complex emotions. Experts recognize these stages as denial, anger, bargaining, despair, and acceptance. However, these experts also know that people do not step neatly from one stage to the next in this exact order, she says.
“Grief can come in waves and change on a very regular basis. Our feelings can change on a daily, or even an hourly, basis,” she explains.
Dr. Sullivan adds it is normal to go from feeling despair one day to anger the next.
“The first thing we need to do is to recognize that it is normal to have these waves of emotions that are happening on a regular basis,” Dr. Sullivan says.
Next, she says, acknowledge the loss whether it is knowing or losing someone with COVID-19, losing jobs, missing friends or family.
“Those are all very sad, difficult things for people to manage,” Dr. Sullivan says.
“Feel what you are feeling – whether it is being overwhelmed, anxious, powerless or anything else, it can help to identify and name these emotions,” she advises.
“It can be quite powerful to sit with those feelings for a few moments – to really recognize those emotions and normalize them,” she says.
However, she advises people to set a time limit on this, suggesting they give themselves five minutes to feel that emotion, and then move on to something that they know is a positive coping skill for them.
“It is important for us to accept where our feelings are at the moment and process through them, and then move into a more positive position of acceptance,” she says.
She says this can be done by identifying their own best coping mechanisms
“This is a time when people need to become innovative and develop their own individual sense of coping that works for them during this time,” she says. Examples might include deep breathing, mindfulness exercises, journaling, talking with another person, or going for a walk.
“If it comes to a point where someone cannot handle these feelings on their own, they need to seek mental health help,” Dr. Sullivan says.
2. Fight the urge to disengage
Dr. Sullivan stresses that staying connected is a powerful tool for coping during hard times. Whether that comes in the form of video chatting or sending a good old-fashioned letter, staying in touch with family, friends, neighbours and coworkers can help people to keep a positive attitude, she says.
She adds that many trained mental and behavioural health professionals are currently seeing patients through virtual visits, so that if people are having trouble coping, this could be a solution.
3. Focus on what can be controlled
Dr. Sullivan says that when there is so much uncertainty about the future, it is easy for people to get carried away, playing out the worst-case scenarios in their heads, for example worrying about themselves or someone else getting COVID-19, or wondering if things will ever get back to normal.
“Anticipating negative events can bring a sense of anxiety or fear,” Dr. Sullivan says.
She advises that, instead of agonizing over the things that cannot be known or controlled, people should be aware of what they do have control over. For example, they can choose how much news or social media they consume in a day, and they can decide what they eat. She recommends being mindful about these choices, and focusing on staying in the present.
4. Be open to joy
Lastly, Dr. Sullivan advises people to find joy and gratitude in the small things, like a video chat with family members, or the rush of fresh air when they open a window or step outside. She adds that if they are under a lockdown order, they can find ways to appreciate the opportunity to step back from the hustle and bustle of everyday life and being home.

Waltham, MA–Nova Biomedical to host “COVID-19 Bedside Glucose Management: Risk of Ascorbic Acid and Hematocrit Interference,” a webinar led by Charbel Abou-Diwan, PhD, Director of Medical and Scientific Affairs, to help inform and support healthcare workers treating COVID-19 patients.
Interest in the antioxidant properties of ascorbic acid use in critically ill patients is growing especially during the in the COVID-19 pandemic. As clinicians search for effective treatments for COVID-19, sepsis, and other critical illness, high dose ascorbic acid is widely considered. These patients are admitted to the ICU where routine POC glucose monitoring becomes part of their care path. Unfortunately, two widely used hospital glucose meters have a substantial interference from ascorbic acid that radically elevates glucose meter results, leading to potential adverse events. This webinar examines the risk of inaccurate glucose meter results due to ascorbic acid interference and how hospitals can protect their patients and protect themselves against this threat.
The webinar will be delivered on three dates: Thursday, April 30th at 2:00 PM EST, Thursday, May 28th at 1:00 PM EST, and Thursday, June 18th at 4:00 PM EST. Attendees can earn educational credits for attending and can register online at novabiomedical.com/poc/glu/covid About Nova Biomedical
Incorporated in 1976 and based in Waltham, MA, Nova Biomedical is a world leader in the development and manufacturing of state-of-the-art, whole blood, point-of-care and critical care analyzers, as well as providing the biotechnology industry with the most advanced instruments for cell culture monitoring. Nova is one of the fastest growing in vitro diagnostic companies in the world. Nova’s biosensor technology is incorporated in products ranging from handheld meters for glucose self- and point-of-care testing to critical care whole blood analyzers designed for rapid measurement of over 20 analytes. Nova’s biotechnology-specific BioProfile line has pioneered comprehensive cell culture testing, providing over 20 critical cell culture tests with over 12 unique instrument offerings for broad range of cell culture applications. Nova employs over 1,300 people worldwide and has wholly owned subsidiaries located in Brazil, Canada, Great Britain, France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, and Japan. www.novabiomedical.com