A stowaway cat shocked small-plane pilot and passenger.

Since coronavirus outbreak started, the NYPD has used at least 1.5 million surgical masks, 1.2 million gloves and 400,000 disinfectant wipes.

In a clinical trial, the drug remdesivir shortened recovery time for patients with advanced cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.

As more states reopen, an army of contact tracers will have to be enlisted to join the effort to stop the coronavirus.

Since the sun's UV rays are lethal to the coronavirus, it seems like a safe place to be, right? Wrong. Here's what sunlight can and can't do.

The Philippines is promising better pay for its nurses to lure them to the front lines against COVID-19, but a legacy of exploitation and poor working conditions in the nation's hospitals has dampened the enthusiasm to answer the call.

As COVID-19 deaths keep rising, Trump's message has shifted from 'one is too many' to praising Americans as warriors fighting to open the economy.

For decades, Jaime Montejo fought to bring dignity to sex workers in Mexico City, protecting them from police, pimps and eventually the coronavirus. Then he got sick.

The singer shared a post on Instagram to mark her 32nd birthday, revealing her slimmer frame

The Corrie favourite has stunned fans with his new look after taking up running

By: Jacqueline Chan and Vanessa Fulton Consumers are increasingly demanding environmentally-friendly products and packaging.  Driven by this increased demand and desire to create positive environmental change, companies are working hard to shift to more sustainable materials and packaging and seeking to communicate such efforts to consumers through product labels and advertising.  “Recyclable.”  “Biodegradable.”  “Made of

The post It’s Not Always Easy Being Green – Lawsuit Related to “Recyclable” Claims Highlights Risks Related to Environmental Benefit Claims appeared first on Kleinfeld Kaplan & Becker LLP.

MPN editor Laura Hughes reached out to Blake Teipel (BT), CEO and co-founder of Essentium, and Gurvinder Singh (GS), global product director, injection moulding at Protolabs, to find out how the companies were helping with the pandemic.

Greenlight Guru, a Medical Device Quality Management Software (MDQMS) platform, has teamed up with Emergo by UL, a consulting firm specialising in global medical device regulatory compliance.

For continued prevention of recurrent VTE

Huffington Post: Data Exclusivity: Getting the Balance Right      A great article on the downsides of cutting or removing data exclusivity provisions for biologics.  The article points out that data protection is needed to enhance safety and create incentives to research and produce new innovative drugs that cost billions of dollars.  However, the author argues that the period must be […]

The innate immune system has become a hot area for drug development, and for good reason. As the body’s first line of defense, its function (or dysfunction) plays a role in many diseases. The problem, says Ventus Therapeutics CEO Marcelo Bigal, is that drug developers have been working in the dark. Scientists don’t know the […]

Ophthalmology specialist Alimera Sciences has announced that Steven T Gill is to return to the company in the newly created role of Vice President, Thought Leader Engagement.

Gill had previously served at Alimera as its Senior Director, Thought Leader Liaison, before leaving the company for Novartis, where he most recently held the position of Associate Director, Thought Leader Liaison at Novartis US.

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The data management solution is designed to help sponsors and CROs manage data more effectively, increasing cost efficiency and effectiveness.

This week, I’m rerunning some popular posts while I prepare for this Friday’s video webinar: Industry Update and COVID-19 Impact: PBMs & Payers.

Today's rerun highlights one of the most effective tactics that PBMs have developed to extract deeper discounts from brand-name drug makers. COVID-19 seems likely shift the U.S. payer mix away from commercial health plans. Expect even tighter formulary management and more restrictions as PBMs work even harder to cut costs for their plan sponsor clients.

Click here to see the original post and comments from January 2020.

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For 2020, the two largest pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs)—Express Scripts and the Caremark business of CVS Health—have again increased the number of drugs they have excluded from their standard formularies. The 2020 formulary exclusion lists are available below for your downloading pleasure.

Below, I highlight my key takeaways from the 2020 lists:

• The number of exclusions

• Management of specialty drugs

• Indication-based formularies

• The slow adoption of biosimilars

• The PBMs’ patient-unfriendly exclusions in the hepatitis C category

Formulary exclusions have emerged as a powerful tool for PBMs to gain additional negotiating leverage against manufacturers. The prospect of exclusion leads manufacturers to offer deeper rebates to avoid being cut from the formulary. Exclusions are therefore a key factor behind falling brand-name net drug prices.

Read on for a look at this year’s exclusions along with some closing thoughts on what exclusions mean for patients.
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In May of 2017 the Board of Directors of the Association of Clinical Research Organizations, which represents the world’s leading clinical research...

Following meetings with then-Commissioner Scott Gottlieb and senior leadership from the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research on the role of CROs and technology companies in designing and implementing risk-based monitoring (RBM) of clinical trials, ACRO this week submitted extensive comments on recent FDA Guidance.Increasing the use of innovative RBM technologies helps make clinical trials safer, more efficient and higher quality. ACRO’s comments offer unique insights into the recent expansion of RBM implementation and call for further increasing the use of these oversight technologies.

Coronavirus crisis: Employee safety at the top of the agenda / First DAX company to hold virtual stockholders’ meeting / Strategic and operational targets attained in 2019 / Dividend of 2.80 euros per share proposed / Good start to fiscal 2020 / Winkeljohann to succeed Wenning as Supervisory Board Chairman

With substandard medicines already in wide circulation, fears are growing that coronavirus could create a lethal ‘parallel crisis’

When Joana Opoku-Darko’s daughter Anna was 18 months old, she came down with malaria, a disease common in Ghana and especially deadly for children.

She bought medication from a pharmacy in Ghana’s capital, Accra; when Anna’s fever didn’t subside she took her to a hospital, where they ran some tests.

The current focus on curbing Covid-19 spread means there is less focus on routine market surveillance

Related: Fight the fakes: how to beat the $200bn medicine counterfeiters | Helen Lock

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The NHS’s coronavirus contract tracing app has been published to Apple and Google’s app stores with council staff and healthcare workers being invited to download it on the Isle of Wight today.

A French patient who suffered from pneumonia in December actually had COVID-19, it has been revealed.

Initial roll-out will see key workers utilise the app

Swiss drugmaker Ferring and its Rebiotix subsidiary have announced a world first with a microbiome-based…

Positive Phase III data for Recarbrio (imipenem/cilastatin/relebactam) have been announced by New Jersey,…

Mark Brewer, who heads up the life sciences team at UK broker and M&A advisory company, finnCap, gives…

The world is waiting for Gilead Sciences to set a price tag for remdesivir, the first brand-new med authorized to treat COVID-19. Its choice will affect Gilead's reputation and bottom line, set a tone for follow-up meds—and either help polish up the pharma industry's image or create a new flashpoint for criticism.

Only days after former BARDA chief Rick Bright filed a whistleblower complaint alleging retaliation by the Trump administration, the U.S. Office of the Special Counsel has recommended his temporary reinstatement, the New York Times reports.

A federal jury in Jacksonville, Fla., found Paul Tillis, a former Florida Department of Corrections officer, guilty on Jan. 16, 2009, of a felony federal civil rights violation for an August 2005 assault on an inmate.

A Chicago police officer pleaded guilty today to violating the federal civil rights of a man whom the officer struck repeatedly with a dangerous weapon while the man was handcuffed and shackled in a wheelchair.

Five commercial fishermen in St. Mary’s County, Md., a fish wholesaler, its owner and an employee have been charged in Maryland and Washington, D.C., for their role in the illegal harvest, sale, and purchase of hundreds of thousands of pounds of striped bass from the Chesapeake Bay and Potomac River from 2003 through 2007.

A federal grand jury indictment was unsealed today in Oklahoma City charging corrections officers Gavin Littlejohn, 25, of Oklahoma City, and Justin Isch, 21, of Edmond, Okla., with a federal civil rights violation for the fatal assault of Christopher Beckman at the Oklahoma County Detention Center in May 2007.

Former Tippah County, Miss., Deputy Sheriff Jeffrey Rogers, 35, pleaded guilty today to a one-count information charging him and former Deputy Sheriff William Rogers with violating the civil rights of an arrestee. William Rogers, 56, who is Jeffrey Rogers’ father, pleaded guilty on Jan. 20, 2009, to the same charge of violating the civil rights of an arrestee.

A federal jury in Memphis, Tenn., today found Arthur Sease IV, a former Memphis Police Department officer, guilty on forty-four counts of civil rights, narcotics, robbery and firearms offenses. The evidence at trial showed that from November 2003 through April 2006, Sease conspired with other Memphis police officers to use their authority as law enforcement officers, including their service weapons, to rob suspected drug dealers of cash, cocaine and marijuana. Sease and his co-conspirators would then resell the stolen drugs for their own profit.

A former Velda City, Mo., auxiliary reserve police officer pleaded guilty today to violating the federal civil rights of a woman he sexually assaulted during a traffic stop and to concealing evidence of his crime from federal investigators. According to facts presented in court, on or about July 9, 2006, Joe Ernest Phillips, 38, then an auxiliary reserve police officer for the Velda City Police Department sexually assaulted a woman while acting under color of law and deprived her of her civil rights.

The Department has reached a settlement that, if approved by the court, will resolve a lawsuit the Department filed on behalf of Air Force Reservist Frank Bonnin against SmallTownPapers Inc., (SmallTownPapers). The complaint, filed in August 2008 in U.S. District Court in Seattle, alleged that SmallTownPapers violated the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 (USERRA) when it terminated Bonnin from his position as director of publisher relations due to his military obligation as an Air Force Reservist to attend active duty training.

The Department announced today that it has entered into a consent decree with the city of Dayton that, if approved by the court, will resolve the Department’s complaint that Dayton has been engaged in a pattern or practice of discrimination against African-Americans in its hiring of entry-level police officers and firefighters, in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII).

The Department announced today that it has filed a lawsuit on behalf of Kevin Stenger, an Indiana National Guard member, against Wagner Industrial Electric Inc. (Wagner), alleging violations of the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 (USERRA). USERRA was enacted in 1994 to protect service members from being disadvantaged in their civilian careers due to serving in the uniformed services.

The Department announced today that it has entered into a consent decree with Ecolab Inc. (Ecolab) that will resolve the Department’s complaint, which was filed today, that Ecolab failed to reemploy Michigan veteran Stephen Alasin in violation of the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994, as amended (USERRA). The consent decree was approved by the court today as well.

The Department announced today that it has entered into a consent decree with Stimson Lumber Company (Stimson) that, if approved by the court, will resolve the Department’s complaint, also filed today, that Oregon-based Stimson failed to reemploy Oregon reservist David Eckhardt in violation of the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 (USERRA).

A Fairfield, Calif., couple was indicted today by a federal grand jury in Sacramento, Calif., on federal civil rights charges related to an alleged bias-motivated assault on an Indian-American couple. The two-count indictment alleges that on the evening of July 14, 2007, Joseph and Georgia Silva committed a bias-motivated assault on another couple at a public beach in South Lake Tahoe, Calif.