The number-one pressure on small-business owners right now is payroll. Whether you’re a sole proprietor one-person-show or a company with 500 employees, you’ve certainly felt the pressure. Maybe you’ve already stopped paying yourself, have laid off workers or cut hours. Well, you can thank your federal government for the best aid program recently offered for small business, the Paycheck Protection Program loan (aka Coronavirus Stimulus Loan, or PPP Loan).
Prominent research universities and government agencies are keeping the public abreast of the scope of the coronavirus pandemic as well as the reported outcomes of identified cases.
Major media outlets are doing their best to share information in real-time, but often portray spiking case numbers in hotspots like New York City as the accelerating spread of COVID-19. The reality, in many states across the U.S., is that COVID-19 has already infected large swaths of the population, so the coronavirus is not necessarily “spiking” but rather being revealed through better diagnostics and wider access to COVID-19 testing.
Image: https://biobuzz.io
Newswise — When T.C. Wu, M.D., Ph.D., M.P.H., and Chien-Fu Hung, Ph.D., heard earlier this year about a new coronavirus that was spreading in China, their pathology labs immediately started developing a vaccine. That’s because nearly 20 years ago, Wu and Hung worked on a vaccine for another coronavirus that originated in China — severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS. So far, Wu and Hung have observed that the new coronavirus is “smarter” and “sneakier” than SARS, and they are concerned it will not go away like SARS did. Wu and Hung can discuss how their lab administered the new coronavirus vaccine to mice, and that preliminary results should be back by the end of the month. Watch this video and read this story about their efforts.
WASHINGTON – Following President Trump’s signing of the historic Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, SBA Administrator Jovita Carranza and Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin today announced that the SBA and Treasury Department have initiated a robust mobilization effort of banks and other lending institutions to provide small businesses with the capital they need.
GAITHERSBURG, Md., March 31, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Emergent BioSolutions Inc. (EBS) today announced an agreement with Novavax, Inc. (NVAX) whereby Emergent will provide molecule-to-market contract development and manufacturing (CDMO) services to produce Novavax’s NanoFlu™, its recombinant quadrivalent seasonal influenza vaccine candidate with its proprietary Matrix-M™ adjuvant. Novavax recently announced that NanoFlu met all primary objectives in its Phase 3 clinical trial evaluating immunogenicity and safety in adults aged 65 and older.
Anthony Fauci has been an extraordinary presence during the COVID-19 crisis: calm yet urgent, informative yet plain-spoken. Along the way, he’s doing something even more difficult than explaining COVID-19. He’s providing insight about the role of the scientific expert in a liberal democracy.
Image: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Fauci
GERMANTOWN, Md. & HILDEN, Germany–(BUSINESS WIRE)–QIAGEN (NYSE: QGEN; Frankfurt Prime Standard: QIA) today announced that it has received emergency use authorization (EUA) from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its newly developed QIAstat-Dx Respiratory SARS-CoV-2 Panel test for use in diagnosing patients infected with the novel COVID-19 coronavirus.
Move over, Roche. There’s a new small cell lung cancer therapy on the scene, and it belongs to AstraZeneca.
Monday, the FDA cleared the British drugmaker’s Imfinzi—in tandem with standard-of-care chemo—for use in previously untreated patients with extensive-stage small cell lung cancer. About 15% of all lung cancer cases are small cell, a fast-growing form of the disease.
Image: The new indication for AZ’s Imfinzi could help it rack up $413 in U.S. sales, SVB Leerink analysts have estimated. (AstraZeneca)
WASHINGTON — Nearly 300 children have now been tested in the District’s first drive-thru COVID-19 coronavirus test site, with no kids in the nation’s capital needing life-saving ventilators as the virus wreaks havoc on older populations.
But after the first American infant died of coronavirus in Chicago on Saturday, a new focus on testing children has entered the national conversation – with treatment for the youngest coronavirus patients potentially playing a key role in fighting the outbreak.
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Emergent BioSolutions (EBS) – Get Report may be a small company up against the heavy hitters, but it has a plan for a coronavirus treatment, one indication that many players are taking their shot at a vaccine, as the world eagerly waits a solution.
Monday, Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) – Get Report said it will start human testing of a vaccine for the Coronavirus as early as September. The company joins Gilead Sciences (GILD) – Get Report, which the World Health Organization says is a front-runner in making a viable drug, in finding a solution to Covid-19.
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