Once an effective COVID19 vaccine is available in the required quantities and is to be delivered to the vaccination centres, a specific logistical task also needs to be addressed: The vaccine must be transported at a temperature of at least -70oC to -80oC and stored on site at the vaccination centre. L&R Kältetechnik has developed a safe, flexible and economical concept for this demanding type of deep-freeze storage: a deep-freeze storage system that is installed in an industrial container...
EKF Diagnostics, the global in vitro diagnostics company, announces that it has introduced one of the first tests to precisely measure levels of COVID-19 neutralizing antibodies in individuals. Unlike other antibody tests, the Kantaro COVID-SeroKlir SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibody test kit determines both the presence and specific quantities of human IgG antibodies to the SARS-CoV-2 virus. This enables a broad range of COVID-19 applications...
Merck, a leading science and technology company, has announced the broadening of its manufacturing footprint with a combined €40 million investment at its production facilities in Danvers, Massachusetts, and Jaffrey, New Hampshire, USA. These sites supply critical products to customers developing lifesaving therapies, including Covid-19 vaccines, as well as provide products and services for biopharmaceutical manufacturing...
Porvair Sciences will exhibit its latest specialist microplates and microplate instrumentation at the forthcoming SLAS 2021 Digital International Conference and Exhibition (January 25-27th 2021). Microplates product manager - Krzysztof Kielmann commented "A particular focus of our virtual exhibit will be specialist microplates and instrumentation for labs supporting the global COVID-19 testing effort....
HALIX B.V. signed an agreement with AstraZeneca AB for large-scale commercial drug substance manufacture of AZD1222, the adenovirus vector-based COVID-19 vaccine. Under the agreement, HALIX will provide commercial manufacturing of drug substance at its state-of-the-art cGMP facility at the Leiden Bio Science Park in the Netherlands. To meet the increased demand, HALIX expands with two additional viral vector production lines....
Scientific Laboratory Supplies (SLS) and leading international life sciences company Eppendorf have been chosen to provide ultra-low temperature (ULT) freezers for the country’s supply of COVID-19 vaccines. SLS – the UK's largest independent supplier of chemicals, laboratory equipment and consumables – was awarded a contract by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) to equip two central storage sites and 54 regional hubs with the vital laboratory equipment required for safe and secure storage of the newly developed vaccine....
LGC’s high-throughput (HTP) RT-PCR testing system for SARS-CoV-2 has been submitted to the FDA for Emergency Use Authorisation (EUA). Testing labs can now leverage LGC’s unrivalled expertise in automated sample preparation and high-throughput RT-PCR workflows in a ready-to-deploy solution. As the need for SARS-CoV-2 testing for both diagnostic and screening applications continues to grow, many organisations are looking to expand or create testing capacity...
Tecan has launched the Revelo RNA-Seq kit, offering end-to-end processing of human samples to enable complete viral RNA-Seq library preparation – including library quantification – in a single day. This kit has been developed specifically to address the pathogen detection and characterization challenges currently faced by laboratories around the world, and is ideally suited to NGS library preparation from low input, patient-derived sample types, such as nasal swabs...
Fusion Antibodies, pre-clinical antibody discovery, engineering and supply experts, and Queen’s University Belfast, leader in innovation and impact, have been awarded a £453,000 grant from Invest Northern Ireland to further expand their COVID-19 targeted research and development efforts. Within the framework of their Northern Ireland Coronavirus Antibody Development Alliance (NICADA), the two organisations will use the funds to accelerate the discovery...
PerkinElmer, Inc., announce that the Lighthouse Lab in Charnwood, Loughborough, England is now processing COVID-19 testing samples as part of the Company’s collaboration with the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) in support of the UK Government’s NHS Test and Trace program. The facility, operated by PerkinElmer Genomics, began processing samples and with its team of 400 scientists, researchers, technicians and operations personnel, has the capacity to test up to 50,000 samples daily by early 2021....
Marinomed Biotech AG, a globally operating biopharmaceutical company, is pleased to announce that the Swansea University Medical School plans a clinical trial with Iota-/kappa-carrageenan nasal spray as a COVID-19 Prophylaxis for Healthcare Professionals (ICE-COVID). The investigator-initiated trial at Swansea will be recruiting 480 healthcare professionals managing COVID-19 patients during the pandemic....
Cancer researchers fear advances for patients could be delayed by almost a year and a half because of the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, a new survey reveals. Scientists at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, told the survey that their own research advances would be pushed back by an average of six months by the initial lockdown, subsequent restrictions on laboratory capacity and the closure of national scientific facilities....
Tecan has launched the Crescendo cDNA™ Synthesis for qPCR system to provide increased sensitivity for low input applications.Developed specifically to meet the needs of researchers working with scarce, precious or degraded RNA samples – such as nasal swabs –it uses Tecan’s proprietary Single Primer Isothermal Amplification (SPIA®) technology to generate large quantities of cDNA from as little as 500 pg of total RNA....
Using HS antibodies from AMSBIO, researchers have demonstrated that Heparanase enzyme contributes to the pathogenesis of COVID-19, with both Heparanase activity and HS levels being elevated in plasma of Covid-19 patients. In addition, recent published data has shown that Heparanase activity is further elevated in ICU patients on ventilators compared to less serious cases....
Dr Sally Price, Head of Cell and Translational Science at Medicines Discovery Catapult (MDC) has been named in BioBeat’20 Movers & Shakers in BioBusiness 2020. Dr Price was instrumental in setting up the Alderley Park Lighthouse Lab, which forms part of the largest diagnostic testing facility in British history, to help in the fight against Coronavirus.
Avacta Group plc, the developer of innovative cancer therapies and diagnostics based on its proprietary Affimer® and pre|CISION™ platforms, is pleased to announce significant progress in the development of a highly scalable manufacturing process for a lateral flow SARS-CoV-2 antigen test being carried out with BBI Solutions, and that the lateral flow test has very good analytical sensitivity with laboratory samples...
Telstar has reinforced the production of Boreas, a -86º ultra-low-temperature freezers, to meet the growing demand in the short term generated by the industrial production of new vaccines to treat Covid-19. The company will double the manufacturing of the latest generation of ultra-low-temperature freezers that complies with all the stringent requirements of storage needed to protect the integrity of vaccines...
ACHEMA 2021 will be postponed to April 4-8, 2022. This decision was taken after intensive discussions with the community and in the ACHEMA Committee in view of the continuing uncertainty caused by the Corona pandemic. From June 15-16, 2021, ACHEMA Pulse will offer the worldwide ACHEMA community the opportunity to learn about the latest trends...
Pfizer and BioNTech SE have announced that they have reached an agreement with the European Commission to supply 200 million doses of their investigational BNT162b2 mRNA-based vaccine candidate against SARS-CoV-2 to European Union (EU) Member States, with an option for the European Commission to request an additional 100 million doses. Deliveries are anticipated to start by the end of 2020, subject to clinical success and regulatory authorization....
Isohelix, a specialist provider of DNA and RNA sampling and purification products, announced that its state-of-the-art GeneFiX™ Saliva RNA Collection Device is the technology of choice for COVID-19 testing by Precision Genetics, a leading healthcare technology company and high capacity molecular testing laboratory. The high-performance, easy-to-use device marks the latest addition to Precision Genetics’ extensive portfolio of validated COVID-19 testing options...
The new IgM antibody test demonstrated 99.9% specificity with 1,400 negative samples and 100% sensitivity at >18 days post symptom onset and post positive PCR. Beckman Coulter’s IgM assay is part of a full suite of testing solutions the company is developing to inform clinical and public health decision making during the COVID-19 pandemic. Beckman Coulter is also developing a SARS-CoV-2 antigen test and quantitative IgG assay....
PerkinElmer, Inc., a global leader committed to innovating for a healthier world, announced today that EUROIMMUN, a PerkinElmer company, has launched the Anti-SARS-CoV-2 about ELISA (IgG) to quantify IgG antibodies against the SARS-CoV-2 S1 antigen. The assay is available for countries accepting the CE mark, and the Company plans to file a request for this product with the U.S. Food and Drug...
Once an effective COVID19 vaccine is available in the required quantities and is to be delivered to the vaccination centres, a specific logistical task also needs to be addressed: The vaccine must be transported at a temperature of at least -70oC to -80oC and stored on site at the vaccination centre. L&R Kältetechnik has developed a safe, flexible and economical concept for this demanding type of deep-freeze storage: a deep-freeze storage system that is installed in an industrial container...
EKF Diagnostics, the global in vitro diagnostics company, announces that it has introduced one of the first tests to precisely measure levels of COVID-19 neutralizing antibodies in individuals. Unlike other antibody tests, the Kantaro COVID-SeroKlir SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibody test kit determines both the presence and specific quantities of human IgG antibodies to the SARS-CoV-2 virus. This enables a broad range of COVID-19 applications...
Merck, a leading science and technology company, has announced the broadening of its manufacturing footprint with a combined €40 million investment at its production facilities in Danvers, Massachusetts, and Jaffrey, New Hampshire, USA. These sites supply critical products to customers developing lifesaving therapies, including Covid-19 vaccines, as well as provide products and services for biopharmaceutical manufacturing...
Porvair Sciences will exhibit its latest specialist microplates and microplate instrumentation at the forthcoming SLAS 2021 Digital International Conference and Exhibition (January 25-27th 2021). Microplates product manager - Krzysztof Kielmann commented "A particular focus of our virtual exhibit will be specialist microplates and instrumentation for labs supporting the global COVID-19 testing effort....
HALIX B.V. signed an agreement with AstraZeneca AB for large-scale commercial drug substance manufacture of AZD1222, the adenovirus vector-based COVID-19 vaccine. Under the agreement, HALIX will provide commercial manufacturing of drug substance at its state-of-the-art cGMP facility at the Leiden Bio Science Park in the Netherlands. To meet the increased demand, HALIX expands with two additional viral vector production lines....
Scientific Laboratory Supplies (SLS) and leading international life sciences company Eppendorf have been chosen to provide ultra-low temperature (ULT) freezers for the country’s supply of COVID-19 vaccines. SLS – the UK's largest independent supplier of chemicals, laboratory equipment and consumables – was awarded a contract by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) to equip two central storage sites and 54 regional hubs with the vital laboratory equipment required for safe and secure storage of the newly developed vaccine....
LGC’s high-throughput (HTP) RT-PCR testing system for SARS-CoV-2 has been submitted to the FDA for Emergency Use Authorisation (EUA). Testing labs can now leverage LGC’s unrivalled expertise in automated sample preparation and high-throughput RT-PCR workflows in a ready-to-deploy solution. As the need for SARS-CoV-2 testing for both diagnostic and screening applications continues to grow, many organisations are looking to expand or create testing capacity...
Tecan has launched the Revelo RNA-Seq kit, offering end-to-end processing of human samples to enable complete viral RNA-Seq library preparation – including library quantification – in a single day. This kit has been developed specifically to address the pathogen detection and characterization challenges currently faced by laboratories around the world, and is ideally suited to NGS library preparation from low input, patient-derived sample types, such as nasal swabs...
Fusion Antibodies, pre-clinical antibody discovery, engineering and supply experts, and Queen’s University Belfast, leader in innovation and impact, have been awarded a £453,000 grant from Invest Northern Ireland to further expand their COVID-19 targeted research and development efforts. Within the framework of their Northern Ireland Coronavirus Antibody Development Alliance (NICADA), the two organisations will use the funds to accelerate the discovery...
PerkinElmer, Inc., announce that the Lighthouse Lab in Charnwood, Loughborough, England is now processing COVID-19 testing samples as part of the Company’s collaboration with the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) in support of the UK Government’s NHS Test and Trace program. The facility, operated by PerkinElmer Genomics, began processing samples and with its team of 400 scientists, researchers, technicians and operations personnel, has the capacity to test up to 50,000 samples daily by early 2021....
Marinomed Biotech AG, a globally operating biopharmaceutical company, is pleased to announce that the Swansea University Medical School plans a clinical trial with Iota-/kappa-carrageenan nasal spray as a COVID-19 Prophylaxis for Healthcare Professionals (ICE-COVID). The investigator-initiated trial at Swansea will be recruiting 480 healthcare professionals managing COVID-19 patients during the pandemic....
Cancer researchers fear advances for patients could be delayed by almost a year and a half because of the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, a new survey reveals. Scientists at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, told the survey that their own research advances would be pushed back by an average of six months by the initial lockdown, subsequent restrictions on laboratory capacity and the closure of national scientific facilities....
Tecan has launched the Crescendo cDNA™ Synthesis for qPCR system to provide increased sensitivity for low input applications.Developed specifically to meet the needs of researchers working with scarce, precious or degraded RNA samples – such as nasal swabs –it uses Tecan’s proprietary Single Primer Isothermal Amplification (SPIA®) technology to generate large quantities of cDNA from as little as 500 pg of total RNA....
Using HS antibodies from AMSBIO, researchers have demonstrated that Heparanase enzyme contributes to the pathogenesis of COVID-19, with both Heparanase activity and HS levels being elevated in plasma of Covid-19 patients. In addition, recent published data has shown that Heparanase activity is further elevated in ICU patients on ventilators compared to less serious cases....
Dr Sally Price, Head of Cell and Translational Science at Medicines Discovery Catapult (MDC) has been named in BioBeat’20 Movers & Shakers in BioBusiness 2020. Dr Price was instrumental in setting up the Alderley Park Lighthouse Lab, which forms part of the largest diagnostic testing facility in British history, to help in the fight against Coronavirus.
Avacta Group plc, the developer of innovative cancer therapies and diagnostics based on its proprietary Affimer® and pre|CISION™ platforms, is pleased to announce significant progress in the development of a highly scalable manufacturing process for a lateral flow SARS-CoV-2 antigen test being carried out with BBI Solutions, and that the lateral flow test has very good analytical sensitivity with laboratory samples...
Telstar has reinforced the production of Boreas, a -86º ultra-low-temperature freezers, to meet the growing demand in the short term generated by the industrial production of new vaccines to treat Covid-19. The company will double the manufacturing of the latest generation of ultra-low-temperature freezers that complies with all the stringent requirements of storage needed to protect the integrity of vaccines...
ACHEMA 2021 will be postponed to April 4-8, 2022. This decision was taken after intensive discussions with the community and in the ACHEMA Committee in view of the continuing uncertainty caused by the Corona pandemic. From June 15-16, 2021, ACHEMA Pulse will offer the worldwide ACHEMA community the opportunity to learn about the latest trends...
Pfizer and BioNTech SE have announced that they have reached an agreement with the European Commission to supply 200 million doses of their investigational BNT162b2 mRNA-based vaccine candidate against SARS-CoV-2 to European Union (EU) Member States, with an option for the European Commission to request an additional 100 million doses. Deliveries are anticipated to start by the end of 2020, subject to clinical success and regulatory authorization....
Isohelix, a specialist provider of DNA and RNA sampling and purification products, announced that its state-of-the-art GeneFiX™ Saliva RNA Collection Device is the technology of choice for COVID-19 testing by Precision Genetics, a leading healthcare technology company and high capacity molecular testing laboratory. The high-performance, easy-to-use device marks the latest addition to Precision Genetics’ extensive portfolio of validated COVID-19 testing options...
The new IgM antibody test demonstrated 99.9% specificity with 1,400 negative samples and 100% sensitivity at >18 days post symptom onset and post positive PCR. Beckman Coulter’s IgM assay is part of a full suite of testing solutions the company is developing to inform clinical and public health decision making during the COVID-19 pandemic. Beckman Coulter is also developing a SARS-CoV-2 antigen test and quantitative IgG assay....
PerkinElmer, Inc., a global leader committed to innovating for a healthier world, announced today that EUROIMMUN, a PerkinElmer company, has launched the Anti-SARS-CoV-2 about ELISA (IgG) to quantify IgG antibodies against the SARS-CoV-2 S1 antigen. The assay is available for countries accepting the CE mark, and the Company plans to file a request for this product with the U.S. Food and Drug...