InnovationRx: Biden Boosts Biotech Manufacturing; Plus: A Covid Pandemic ‘Finish Line’

InnovationRx is your weekly digest of healthcare news. To get it in your inbox, subscribe here . O n Monday , President Biden signed an executive order geared towards advancing “biotechnology and biomanufacturing towards innovative solutions.

” This involves programs from multiple agencies to spur more biotech manufacturing in the United States, including: The Biotechnology Innovation Organization, a trade group representing biotech companies, applauded this initiative. “BIO welcomes the Biden Administration’s directives to strengthen our domestic biotechnology and biomanufacturing industry,” the organization’s president Michelle McMurry-Heath said in a statement. Family members of all three donors are burdened with the disorder, which affects 2.

3 million people Americans. The philanthropic effort aims to deepen understanding with innovative research and develop new treatments. Read more here.

Venture Capital : Prime Movers Lab announced Wednesday that it’s launched a $500 million early growth fund to invest in breakthrough science companies, including biotech startups and psychedelic medicine. Hearing Aids: Danish company WS Audiology has entered into a partnership with Sony to jointly develop new products and services in the over-the-counter hearing aid market. Microbes Against Chronic Disease : Biotech startup Novome Biotechnologies announced Tuesday that it has raised a $43.

5 million series B round to advance the development of its genetically engineered microbe therapy for IBD. New Treatment Approach: The Longwood Fund and Dr. Amit Choudhary announced the launch of Photys Therapeutics, a company aimed at developing a new class of therapeutics for the treatment of underserved disease, with a $75 million series A round .

Pfizer announced on Wednesday it has launched a late-stage clinical trial to test a flu vaccine built using the same mRNA technology behind its Covid-19 shot. Air pollution from vehicle exhaust and other fossil fuel smoke may increase the risk of lung cancer in nonsmokers, according to a new study published Saturday. Patients are waiting an average of 26 days to schedule an appointment with a doctor, according to a survey of more than 1,000 physician offices looking at average wait times among family medicine, dermatology, obstetrics/gynecology, orthopedic surgery and cardiology.

A Los Angeles resident who was severely immunocompromised has died of monkeypox after being hospitalized, marking the first confirmed death due to the disease, though fatalities remain rare and cases in the U. S. continue to fall.

The United States has joined the World Health Organization’s list of countries where polio is circulating owing to the spread of vaccine-derived virus in New York. I n a new report released by the United Nations, the combination of the Covid-19 pandemic, climate change and the war in Ukraine has set back human progress within the last two years alone, pushing it all the way back to 2016 levels. This is a worldwide problem, with the UN reporting nine out of 10 countries have moved backwards on the UN’s Human Development Index in 2020 and 2021.

This measures countries’ life expectancy, standard of living and education levels. This is the first time in 30 years that the value has dwindled for two consecutive years. The Caribbean, Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and South Asia have been the most affected.

Switzerland, Iceland and Norway hold the top spots, the U. S. sits at number 21 and Chad, South Sudan and Niger all fall at the bottom.

There’s hope, however, as some countries are now transitioning into a recovery period. The number of weekly global Covid-19 deaths reached the lowest point since March 2020 last week, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Wednesday. Read more here.

In a study conducted by researchers at Harvard, it was found that those who reported feelings of distress, anxiety, or depression before catching Covid were 50% more likely to develop Long Covid. A new project is looking to figure out how to combat long Covid . With $15 million in funding from crypto mogul Vitalik Buterin’s investment fund Balvi, the group’s first task is understanding its causes.

Monoclonal antibody treatments have saved thousands of lives during the pandemic, but as new variants have emerged, they’ve become less effective. But that may change, as a new Japanese study has announced the discovery of a promising new antibody that could work against multiple variants. It’s Not Just Inflation: Avian Flu Will Pump Up Prices Of Thanksgiving Turkeys Railroad Dispute: White House Tries To Avert $2 Billion A Day Transportation Strike How One Man Lost $1 Million To A Crypto ‘Super Scam’ Called Pig Butchering One of Long COVID’s Worst Symptoms Is Also Its Most Misunderstood (The Atlantic) New study highlights ketamine’s promise for treatment-resistant depression (Popular Science) The Hidden Toll of Wildfires (Scientific American).