President Joe Biden’s administration will spend $3 billion in American Rescue Plan money to accelerate the discovery, development and manufacturing of antiviral medicines against COVID-19, HHS announced today. Not only will the Antiviral Program for Pandemics seek to boost the availability of medicines to prevent serious COVID-19 illness and save lives, but it will pursue […]
Dept. of Health & Human Services (HHS)
HHS wants investors to help prevent next pandemic
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is turning to venture capital to speed the development of medical devices to stave off or fight public health emergencies. HHS’s Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) plans to provide the nonprofit Global Health Investment Corporation (GHIC) with a minimum of $50 million over five years, with […]
Senate confirms new CMS leader
The U.S. Senate today confirmed President Joe Biden’s selection to lead CMS, Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, with a 55-44 vote in favor. Brooks-LaSure will be the first Black woman to hold the position, according to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Twitter. She previously served in the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services during the […]
HHS shoots down ‘flawed’ plan to let some devices skip review
The Biden administration has nixed what it described as a “flawed” Trump-era decision to exempt certain medical devices — including infusion pump controllers and fetal monitors — from regulatory review. HHS published the original notice in the Federal Register on Jan. 15, shortly before President Joe Biden was set to take office, without speaking with […]
Companies, docs alarmed by proposed 510(k) rollback
Medical associations and device companies have largely come out against a Trump administration proposal to permanently exempt certain medical devices and software from the FDA 510(k) clearance process. HHS used Trump’s waning days in office to propose permanently exempting 83 Class II devices and one unclassified device from the clearance review process. The list includes home ventilators, […]
Xavier Becerra confirmed as HHS secretary
The U.S. Senate narrowly voted to confirm Xavier Becerra as the U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services (HHS) secretary today. Becerra received the nomination for the position from President Joe Biden in December 2020. Today, the Senate voted 50-49 in favor of Becerra, who will have to resign his seat as California’s attorney general. […]
Biden to put $12B toward COVID testing
The Biden administration today pledged $10 billion for school COVID-19 screenings and $2.25 billion for screenings and diagnostic testing among underserved populations. The money is part of the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act that Biden signed into law last week. The Department of Health and Human Services will divvy up the $10 billion among […]
Feds to spend $1.6B to expand COVID testing, domestic manufacturing
The Biden administration announced plans today to expand COVID-19 testing across the country, boost domestic manufacturing of tests and testing supplies and increase virus genome sequencing to detect virus variants. The departments of Health and Human Services and Defense will jointly invest $650 million to expand testing for K-8 schools and underserved congregate settings, such […]
Retractable Technologies lands $54.2M federal contract for syringes
Retractable Technologies (NYSE:RVP) announced that it received a government contract worth more than $54.2 million for its syringes. Little Elm, Texas-based Retractable Technologies’ contract and purchase order was made by the U.S. Health & Human Services Dept. (HHS) with a base price of $54,217,800 for a five-month period between Feb. 15, 2021, and July 14, 2021. […]
Feds order 200M more vaccine doses from Pfizer, Moderna
U.S. government agencies announced that they purchased a total of 200 million additional doses of COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) and Moderna (NSDQ:MRNA). The orders of 100 million doses from each of the only two FDA-authorized vaccines in the U.S. were made by the U.S. Health & Human Services Dept. (HHS) and the Defense Dept. (DoD). The […]
Biden administration orders home COVID-19 tests
The U.S. Defense Dept. announced today that it awarded Ellume $231.8 to onshore production capacity of its Ellume COVID-19 home test. In coordination with the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services (HHS), the DoD contract is an industrial base expansion to allow Ellume to increase the production capacity of its home test by 640,000 […]
