Category: biotechnology

Non-profit aims to get COVID-19 field tests, N95 masks and more to healthcare workers without markups

A new Sydney-based non-profit volunteer organization called RapidWard launches this week, with a focus on getting critical medical supplies from producers in China to healthcare professionals, doctors, hospitals and governments worldwide who need them. The group, founded by serial entrepreneur and advisor Milton Zhou, has ample supply chain experience and…

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Scanwell aims to launch at-home 15-minute coronavirus test, but it still needs FDA approval

At-home diagnostics startup Scanwell, which produces smartphone-based testing for UTIs, is working on getting at-home testing for the novel coronavirus into the hands of U.S. residents. The technology, which was developed by Chinese diagnostic technology company INNOVITA and has already been approved by China’s equivalent of the FDA and used…

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Oxford scientists develop new coronavirus test that provides results in just 30 minutes

Scientists at the University of Oxford have developed a new coronavirus test that produces results around three times faster than the current fastest testing methods, and that requires only relatively simple technical instrumentation. In addition to these benefits, the researchers behind the test’s development say that it  could even help…

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Gates, Wellcome and Mastercard launch $125 million fund to finance COVID-19 treatments

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Wellcome, and Mastercard announced a new initiative yesterday to accelerate technologies designed to identify, assess, develop, and scale treatments to the COVID-19 epidemic. The COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator will evaluate new and repurposed drugs and biologics to treat patients with COVID-19 in the immediate term,…

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Karius raises $165 million for its liquid biopsy technology identifying diseases in a drop of blood

“What Karius is good at is identifying those novel microbes before they become an outbreak like coronavirus,” says Mickey Kertesz, a chief executive whose life sciences startup just hauled in $165 million in new funding. While the new money may have been raised under the looming threat of Covid 19,…

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