Tag: Biotech

Bradley Tusk on starting a company and seed investing in the coronavirus era

Bradley Tusk has carved a unique path in the VC investment landscape: A longtime political and communications operative, he has built a track record for Tusk Ventures by going after highly regulated industries, rather than shying away from them. Whether it is ride-hailing, sports betting, cannabis or myriad other regulated…

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University of Oxford coronavirus vaccine trial aims to have 500 people in testing by mid-May

One of the largest COVID-19 vaccine trials currently underway will have over 500 volunteers actively testing its solution by the middle of next month. Researchers at the University of Oxford have already secured that number of participants, including a representative sample of people between the ages of 18 to 55,…

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FDA debuts new online portal to encourage donation of plasma from recovered COVID-19 patients

One of the avenues currently being pursued in terms of developing an effective treatment for COVID-19 is through the use of convalescent plasma. Basically, that means using the liquid component of blood from people who have had, and already recovered fully from COVID-19 to produce treatments that hopefully translate the…

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Mammoth Biosciences receives first peer-reviewed validation of CRISPR-based COVID-19 test

SF-based CRISPR diagnostics startup Mammoth Biosciences has published the first peer-reviewed study that shows validation of using its testing method to detect the presence of COVID-19 in patients. The study, published in Nature, shows performance on par with existing PCR-based molecular tests, the one ones currently authorized for use by…

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FDA authorizes production of a new ventilator that costs up to 25x less than existing devices

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has authorized the manufacture of the Coventor ventilator, a new hardware design first developed by the University of Minnesota. The project sought to create a ventilator that could provide the same level of life-saving care as existing ventilator models, but with a much…

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FDA clears N95 decontamination process that could clean up to 4 million masks per day

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has provided an emergency use authorization (EUA) for a decontamination process provided by company Advanced Sterilization Products (ASP) that could see as many as 4 million N95 respirators per day sterilized for re-use. That’s a significant potential dent in the ongoing shortage of…

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