Today's Topline - 5/12/20
Tuesday, May 12, 2020
Source: MedTech Association
Good Tuesday morning:
In a move characterized as “the next big step in this historic journey,” Governor Andrew Cuomo yesterday announced the details of an easing of New York’s lockdown restrictions. The plan, New York Forward: A Guide to Reopening New York & Building Back Better, provides a blueprint for a phased, regional reopening of the state’s businesses and economy. As of yesterday, three regions (Finger Lakes, Southern Tier, and Mohawk Valley) had met all criteria for a first-phase reopening by this Friday and two other regions (Central New York and North Country) were poised to meet all standards very soon.
MedTech’s Executive Director, Win Thurlow, noted New York’s science-based approach to its reopening plan. “We salute Governor Cuomo for his measured and data-driven response to this public health crisis. MedTech members are in the business of saving lives and we understand the primacy of good information in making wise policy decisions,” Thurlow said.
In other important news, MedTech member Johnson & Johnson has announced significant progress on its goal to supply more than one billion doses of a COVID-19 vaccine globally. J&J’s Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies has entered into a collaboration with Emergent BioSolutions, Inc. to support the manufacturing of its lead investigational COVID-19 vaccine candidate. Under the terms of the agreement, Johnson & Johnson is investing to expand drug substance capacity related to the vaccine candidate. Emergent will provide drug substance manufacturing services with its molecule-to-market CDMO offering, beginning in 2020, and will also reserve operations capacity to potentially support commercial manufacturing of Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate beginning in 2021.
The Company has already begun preparations for clinical vaccine production in the Netherlands, with the aim of initiating Phase 1 human clinical studies of its vaccine candidate in September 2020. Johnson & Johnson will begin production at risk and is committed to bringing an affordable vaccine to the public on a not-for-profit basis for emergency pandemic use. Simultaneously, the company is aiming to rapidly scale up vaccine manufacturing capabilities globally, including increasing capacity in countries outside the U.S. The additional global capacity will assist in the rapid production of a vaccine and enable the supply of more than one billion doses of a vaccine to people around the world.
MedTech exists to deliver value to the bio/med industry and serve those on the front lines of healthcare advances. We rely on our members to make that possible. Please take a moment to join or renew your membership today. Renewing members can lock in last year’s rate through 2021. New members who join today will receive 3 free months on their membership year. Don’t wait. We need your support to continue the work we do.
As always, don’t hesitate to contact us with your specific questions and concerns. Regular updates can be found at our website, which is refreshed daily.