U.S. Department of Defense Archives - Medical Design Sourcing

Fujifilm wins $405M DoD contract for endoscopic tech

Fujifilm Healthcare Americas Corp. recently announced a five-year U.S. Defense Department contract to provide endoscopy tech and training to all U.S. military hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers.

The contract with the U.S. Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support also covers the Veteran’s Health Administration, National Institutes of Health, Indian Health Service and more. A DoD contracts announcement from early February lists the size of the contract at $405 million.

“We are particularly honored to serve those who represent their nation so proudly in military and public service,” said Taisuke Fujita, VP of Endoscopy at Lexington, Massachusetts–based Fujifilm Healthcare Americas Corp.

“We are determined to deliver the most advanced technology to the medical teams at each of the institutions covered by this monumental agreement,” Fujita said in an April 13 news release.

The contract involves Fujifilm’s entire portfolio of endoscopic soluti…

HHS, DOD invest more than $562M to increase COVID-19 test manufacturing

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)

The U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services (HHS) and Defense Dept. (DOD), awarded more than $562 million for COVID-19 test manufacturing.

As part of the American Rescue Plan to boost manufacturing of key products that increase domestic testing supply, the more than $562 million went to a dozen U.S. companies to support the production of supplies including pipette tips, protective packaging, swabs and reagents, according to a news release.

HHS and DOD’s investments follow President Joe Biden’s announcements of efforts to make COVID-19 testing more available to Americans, including a $3 billion investment into rapid testing to increase the supply of at-home tests by four times by December.

Here are the companies that received awards as part of the $562 million investment from the U.S. government:

Nalge Nunc (Thermo Fisher Scientific subsidiary) – 192.5 million for domestic manufac…

Feds to spend $1.6B to expand COVID testing, domestic manufacturing

(Image from the CDC)

The Biden administration announced plans today to expand COVID-19 testing across the country, boost domestic manufacturing of tests and testing supplies and increase virus genome sequencing to detect virus variants.

The departments of Health and Human Services and Defense will jointly invest $650 million to expand testing for K-8 schools and underserved congregate settings, such as homeless shelters, directly through new regional coordination “hubs.” The move will also include working with laboratories, including at universities, to collect specimens, perform the tests and report results to the relevant public health agencies for up to 25 million additional tests per month.

Get the full story on our sister site, Medical Design & Outsourcing.

Feds order 200M more vaccine doses from Pfizer, Moderna

[Photo by Daniel Schludi on Unsplash]

U.S. government agencies announced that they purchased a total of 200 million additional doses of COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) and Moderna (NSDQ:MRNA).

The orders of 100 million doses from each of the only two FDA-authorized vaccines in the U.S. were made by the U.S. Health & Human Services Dept. (HHS) and the Defense Dept. (DoD). The U.S. has now purchased a total of 600 million doses, according to a news release, with the totals of the two-dose vaccines allowing for the vaccination of 300 million people.

Get the full story at our sister site, MassDevice.

Feds order 200M more vaccine doses from Pfizer, Moderna

[Photo by Daniel Schludi on Unsplash]U.S. government agencies announced that they purchased a total of 200 million additional doses of COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) and Moderna (NSDQ:MRNA).

The orders of 100 million doses from each of the only two FDA-authorized vaccines in the U.S. were made by the U.S. Health & Human Services Dept. (HHS) and the Defense Dept. (DoD). The U.S. has now purchased a total of 600 million doses, according to a news release, with the totals of the two-dose vaccines allowing for the vaccination of 300 million people.

Each company is set to deliver 300 million doses in regular increments through the end of July 2021 while leveraging U.S.-based manufacturing capacity to produce in bulk.

“As the President directed, we are expanding our supply of COVID vaccines to protect people as quickly as possible,” Acting HHS Secretary Norris Cochran said in the release. “These purchases will allow us to accelerate our vaccination …

Biden administration orders home COVID-19 tests

The U.S. Defense Dept. announced today that it awarded Ellume $231.8 to onshore production capacity of its Ellume COVID-19 home test.

In coordination with the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services (HHS), the DoD contract is an industrial base expansion to allow Ellume to increase the production capacity of its home test by 640,000 tests per day by December 2021.

The expansion includes the procurement of 8.5 million tests to be distributed across the U.S. in accordance with the National Strategy for the COVID-19 Response and Pandemic Preparedness policy established January 21, 2021, according to a news release.

Valencia, Calif.-based Ellume’s COVID-19 home test is the first FDA-authorized fully at-home diagnostic for detecting symptomatic or asymptomatic COVID-19, having received emergency use authorization (EUA) in December. The test’s development was supported by the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) Rapid Acceleration of Diagnos…

7 core strategies in Biden’s battle against COVID-19

[Photo by Fusion Medical Animation on Unsplash]

Included in President Joe Biden’s sprawling strategy document for dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic are an array of plans intended to ramp up vaccination efforts.

Also included are proposals for accelerating the development of therapies such as antiviral compounds effective against SARS-CoV-2 and other coronaviruses with pandemic potential.

The “full-scale, wartime” plans have considerable relevance for the pharmaceutical and medical device industries. (More information is available on the medical-device ramifications of the plan from our sister site, Medical Design & Outsourcing.)

While the plan stands out from the prior administration’s COVID-19 response in its detail and earnestness, several portions effectively represent a continuation of existing policy. The policy, for instance, says it will end the U.S. government’s practice of stockpil…

Feds ink COVID-19 vaccine distro deal with McKesson

The U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Defense Dept. (DoD) announced a COVID-19 vaccine distribution deal with McKesson.

Under Operation Warp Speed, McKesson will become a central distributor of future COVID-19 vaccines and related supplies needed to administer the pandemic vaccinations, according to a news release.

Get the full story at our sister site, Pharmaceutical Processing World.

DoD paying Biomérieux subsidiary $3.1M to boost COVID-19 test production

The U.S. government announced that it signed a $3.1 million agreement with Biomérieux subsidiary BioFire to expand production of its COVID-19 test.

Government funding came from the U.S. Defense Dept. (DoD), in coordination with the Dept. of Health and Human Services (HHS), according to a news release.

BioFire’s COVID-19 test received FDA emergency use authorization (EUA) in March. The $3.1 million investment from the government will allow the company to increase its manufacturing capacity by expanding its facility in Salt Lake City with two new production lines.

The company is set to triple its manufacturing capacity for tests, beginning in September 2020. Those tests are compatible for use with BioFire’s FilmArray instruments that are, according to a news release, fielded across the DoD and Department of State.

U.S. to spend $1B for doses of J&J’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate

The U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services and Defense Dept. agreed to a $1 billion deal for a vaccine candidate from Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ).

HHS and DoD announced the agreement with Janssen Pharmaceutical, as the J&J subsidiary is set to offer large-scale manufacturing and the delivery of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate, with the federal government owning 100 million doses of the vaccine.

Get the full story at our sister site, Pharmaceutical Processing World.

HHS, DOD invest $7.6m in Hologic COVID-19 test samples

The U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Defense Dept. (DoD) announced a $7.6 million contract for COVID-19 testing from Hologic (NSDQ:HOLX).

Marlborough, Mass.-based Hologic will receive the undenifitized contract with a ceiling of $7.6 million so it can expand production of custom sample collection and processing consumables for COVID-19 testing, according to a news release.

Hologic’s tube, cap and multi-tube unit consumables are used to perform molecular diagnostic tests on the company’s Panther Fusion system. With the additional funds from the contract, Hologic is slated to boost its test production from 4.8 million per month to 6.8 million per month, with the increased consumable volume expected to reach the market by January 2021.

The fully automated Panther systems provide initial results from the tests in approximately three hours, processing more than 1,000 coronavirus tests in 24 hours. Hologic already has two approved …

Inovio to scale up production of smart delivery device for potential COVID-19 vaccine

Inovio Pharmaceuticals (NSDQ:INO) announced that it received $71 million from the U.S. Defense Dept. to support its Cellectra 3PSP smart device.

Funding from the DoD is set to support large-scale manufacturing for the Cellectra 3PSP and the procurement of Cellectra 2000 devices, which are used to deliver INO-4800 directly into the skin. It may also be used to deliver a potential COVID-19 vaccine.

Get the full story at our sister site, Drug Delivery Business News.