The Biden administration announced today that it will begin sharing its store of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine following safety reviews. Once the vaccine clears federal safety reviews, 60 million doses of the vaccine are expected to be made available, according to a Tweet from senior White House advisor Andy Slavitt. “BREAKING: U.S. to release 60 million Astra Zeneca […]
Joe Biden
MedTech 100 roundup: Small dip keeps industry down
The last month brought a bit of a skid for the medtech industry and after a slight rebound last week, the downward trend has returned. A strong start to 2021 came to an end in late February and carried over into March, with MassDevice‘s MedTech 100 index hitting its lowest point on March 8 (102.16). It […]
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 […]
AdvaMed brass on Biden administration: So far, so good
In office barely two months, the Biden administration is winning high praise from leaders of the medtech trade group AdvaMed. That applies to the new administration’s use of the Defense Production Act for COVID supplies to its deliberation in choosing someone to lead the FDA. It doesn’t hurt that the $1.9 trillion pandemic relief bill […]
Amid controversy, Biden cancels Emergent Biosolutions visit
The White House scrapped plans to hold a meeting today at a Baltimore-based vaccine plant run by Emergent BioSolutions following an exposé from The New York Times. The Biden administration also announced plans to conduct an audit of the Strategic National Stockpile after the publication of the article, which described how the biopharmaceutical company lobbied […]
MedTech 100 roundup: Slight dip after all-time best for industry
The medtech industry’s stocks rose higher than they ever had to begin last week before eventually dropping to a slightly more normal level. MassDevice‘s MedTech 100 index ended the week (Feb. 19) at 108.72 points, marking a -1.7% dip from the 110.63-point mark set at the end of the previous week (Feb. 12). On Monday (Feb. […]
Feds to order 61M more at-home coronavirus tests, build surgical glove factories
Just days after ordering 8.5 million at-home tests from Ellume, the Biden administration announced today that it’s in talks with six other at-home coronavirus test manufacturers. In an online briefing, Tim Manning, the national supply chain coordinator for COVID response, told reporters that these companies could produce another 61 million at-home tests by the end of […]
Pandemic Emergency Manufacturing Act would supplement DPA
A rewritten pandemic manufacturing bill was introduced to both houses of Congress yesterday to enable the federal government to manufacture or contract with existing manufacturers to make products to fight COVID-19. The bill, introduced by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), builds off the COVID-19 Emergency Manufacturing Act, introduced in 2020 to […]
MedTech 100 roundup: Another peak for the industry
Medtech stocks have been on the rise in 2021, and the past week saw the trend continue with yet another all-time best mark. MassDevice‘s MedTech 100 index reached 107.4 points on Jan. 20, topping the all-time best of 106.81 points set on Jan. 8. That mark represents a 16% jump from the pre-pandemic high of 92.32 […]
The top 5 MassDevice stories of the week — January 22, 2021
It’s a new year with a new president who has new plans to fight the COVID-19 pandemic — a strategy that should be a big story for medtech in coming weeks. Even as President Biden and COVID-19 dominated the news, the medical device industry saw some important news in the hot robotic surgery space and […]
