After a deal between General Motors and Ventec Life Systems to produce 80,000 ventilators briefly appeared halted, President Trump yesterday ordered GM to proceed under the Defense Production Act. A New York Times report earlier on Friday said the Federal Emergency Management Agency had paused the $1 billion plan, saying it needed time to determine […]
Trump administration to use Defense Production Act for first time
The Trump administration will use the Defense Production Act to secure about 60,000 coronavirus test kits — and will insert DPA language into a contract for 500 million protective masks, according to media reports. FEMA chief Peter Gaynor broke the news on CNN today. He stressed that the administration still wants to be careful not […]
Trump says mere threat of using Defense Production Act is enough to fight coronavirus
President Donald Trump may have signed an executive order last week that invoked the decades-old Defense Production Act, but so far he isn’t using it to boost needed medical supplies to combat the coronavirus pandemic. Trump argued during a press briefing yesterday that the mere threat of using the Korean-War-era law was enough to get […]
7 ways the coronavirus is affecting medtech
Medtech companies face some tough times as the deadly coronavirus pandemic gains steam. But could this be the medical device industry’s Dunkirk, too? Just days ago, MassMEDIC president Brian Johnson made a call-out on LinkedIn for people to send ideas about how Massachusetts medical device companies could help fight COVID-19. He drew an analogy to […]
Trump invokes Defense Production Act against coronavirus
President Trump announced today that he is invoking the Defense Production Act — a Korean War–era law that enables extraordinary government actions to boost needed supplies — “just in case we need it” to fight the coronavirus pandemic. There have been stories of healthcare providers across the United States facing shortages of everything from ventilators […]
Trump orders more general use respirators for healthcare workers
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic sweeping the globe, President Donald Trump issued an executive order to increase the availability of personal respiratory devices for healthcare workers. In a memorandum released by the White House on March 10, Trump declared that public health experts anticipate shortages in the supply of respirators available for use by healthcare workers […]
President Trump signs $8.3b coronavirus emergency funding bill
President Donald Trump today signed an $8.3 billion emergency package to help address the ongoing outbreak of COVID-19, which is caused by the coronavirus. According to a report by Politico, about $7.7 billion of that $8.3 billion is slated for discretionary spending to improve vaccine development, research, equipment stockpiles and both state and local health budgets. […]
Trump nominates Dr. Stephen Hahn to head FDA
President Trump has nominated the chief medical officer at Houston’s M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Dr. Stephen Hahn, as the next commissioner at the FDA. Hahn supplanted other candidates, including acting commissioner Dr. Ned Sharpless, who will return to the National Cancer Institute, according to a report by The Hill. Dr. Brett Giroir, the current assistant […]
Medtech reporting would change under new opioid law
A section of the recently-passed bill to address the opioid crisis could have implications for medtech. The 250-page Substance Use-Disorder Prevention that Promotes Opioid Recovery and Treatment for Patients and Communities Act (SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act) contains a provision that would require manufacturers of certain medical devices, drugs and biologics covered by Medicare, Medicaid, […]
Here are the top 5 medtech stories of mid-2018
A growing U.S. trade war with China and other countries casts a pall on medtech — and U.S. business in general — in mid-2018. The landscape of the medical device industry continues to evolve, though. There’s a major corporate spinout in the works, as well as a mega-merger that apparently was not to be. Read […]
Trump tariffs place nearly $1 billion in duties on the medtech industry
The U.S. medical device industry is facing nearly $1 billion in tariffs from the Trump administration, about $4 billion less than what was originally expected, according to AdvaMed. Customs and Border Protection began collecting the additional duties on July 6. The Trump administration announced in April that it intended to impose tariffs on $50 billion […]
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