These articles initially appeared in The Journal of Healthcare Contracting’s Dail-eNews.
FRIDAY, JAN. 31
Coronavirus: Singapore bans Chinese travelers as outbreak spreads, U.S. raises travel warning
Singapore’s health ministry has banned entry to all Chinese visitors and foreigners with a recent travel history to China. The move takes effect Saturday, and effectively shuts out the island’s largest group of visitors. It is the first Southeast Asian country to implement a travel ban to Chinese travelers to contain the outbreak. This comes after the U.S. State Department raised its travel advisory on Thursday for China from Level 3 to Level 4, citing the coronavirus outbreak. Only a handful of countries are labeled as Level 4 from the U.S. State Department due to a greater likelihood of life-threatening risks. Read real-time updates here.
WHO names coronavirus outbreak a public health emergency of international concern
The World Health Organization (WHO) has named the coronavirus outbreak a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC). It is the fifth time in 13 years since global regulations have been in effect that an outbreak has met these conditions. International Health Regulations were first used to declare a public health emergency of international concern for the H1N1 pandemic in 2009. Other examples include the 2019 Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the 2016 Zika virus. A public health emergency of international concern requires a response from states and may also require a coordinated international response, according to WHO. The rise in coronavirus cases in the past week and the spread of the virus from China to additional countries led WHO to declare a PHEIC. The latest figures show that 7,834 people have been sickened worldwide and at least 170 people have died in China. There are now 98 confirmed cases in 18 countries outside of China, including eight person-to-person transmissions in Germany, Japan, Vietnam and the U.S. Read more here.
THURSDAY, JAN. 30
Premier President: GPO remains vigilant, but no current supply disruptions due to coronavirus
The Journal of Healthcare Contracting reached out to Premier Inc. for comment on whether the coronavirus outbreak – predominantly in China, but with a handful of confirmed cases in the United States – had impacted its suppliers and members. Read President Michael J. Alkire’s comments, as of Wednesday, Jan. 29, here.
3M, Honeywell to increase mask production due to coronavirus
3M (Saint Paul, MN) and Honeywell (Charlotte, NC) are increasing their facemask and other respiratory protection productions worldwide due to demand increases with the coronavirus outbreak. 3M stated that its Chinese facility is fully operational despite the spread of the virus in China. CNBC reported the company plans to ramp up production of the masks at its facilities in China and other Asian countries, as well as the U.S. and Europe. Honeywell hasn’t disclosed details of its facilities that would increase the production of these masks. Read more here.
WEDNESDAY, JAN. 29
J&J answers questions surrounding coronavirus and a potential preventive vaccine
Dr. Paul Stoffels, vice chairman of the executive committee and chief scientific officer at Johnson & Johnson (J&J), recently answered questions about coronavirus, the outbreak, treatment and a potential preventive vaccine. “We began work on the current novel coronavirus vaccine two weeks ago, starting from a sequence we now know, and are optimistic that we can start testing later this year,” says Dr. Stoffels. Read more of his interview here.
U.S. government charters plane evacuating 201 Americans from China amid coronavirus outbreak
A plane chartered by the U.S. government to evacuate 201 Americans from the Chinese city of Wuhan, at the center of the coronavirus outbreak, is on its way to Southern California today. It’s carrying diplomats from the U.S. Consulate in Wuhan and other U.S. citizens. All evacuees cleared initial health checks in China and then during a refueling stop in Alaska. Before the flight left China there were more than 1,000 Americans stranded in Wuhan. Other countries have begun evacuating citizens from China on chartered flights, and some major airlines have been halting flights to mainland China. Read more about the evacuations here.
Australian scientists first to grow coronavirus in lab outside China
Scientists in Australia have become the first outside of China to recreate the coronavirus. Researchers at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity (Melbourne, Australia) have grown the virus in laboratory conditions from a patient sample. The institute is a joint venture between the Royal Melbourne Hospital and the University of Melbourne. The discovery seeks to provide international laboratories with critical information to help fight the deadly virus. The lab-grown virus is set to help the production of an antibody test, enabling early detection of the virus in patients who are yet to show symptoms. Read more about Australia’s laboratory tests here.
TUESDAY, JAN. 28
AbbVie donates $1M+ of HIV drug to combat coronavirus; rush is on for effective drugs, vaccines
AbbVie (North Chicago, IL) is donating more than $1 million worth of an HIV drug to help combat the spreading coronavirus outbreak in China. The country’s national health commission has suggested Aluvia, a pill containing lopinavir and ritonavir, as one of two possible treatments for the symptoms of the virus known as 2019-nCoV in the absence of effective antiviral medications. Drugmakers are racing to add more potential drugs to the arsenal as Chinese government officials are rushing to contain and find solutions for the epidemic that originated in the city of Wuhan. The theory behind Aluvia is it works by blocking a protease that the coronavirus needs for reproduction in the human body. It’s not the same protease that the drug was originally designed to block, but it may be similar enough to delay disease progression. Aluvia has also been tested in patients with SARS and MERS. Other drugmakers are heeding the call for effective medications, including Gilead’s (Foster City, CA) remdesivir, an antiviral that missed the mark on Ebola. Moderna (Massachusetts) is aligned with the NIH to develop a vaccine and J&J recently told CNBC about its efforts to create a potential vaccine, testing at least five different constructs in parallel, building an animal model and preparing the manufacturing infrastructure. Read more about combating the coronavirus here.
CDC monitors 110 people in 26 states for coronavirus
As the Wuhan virus death toll jumps to 106 and more than 4,000 cases have been confirmed in China, U.S. health officials are currently monitoring 110 people across 26 states for the coronavirus, including five patients who contracted the deadly virus in China and transported it back to the U.S. The disease has killed 81 people in China and sickened more than 2,800 worldwide. The risk to the U.S. public right now is still considered low. However, the number of patients monitored has almost doubled from the 63 under monitoring last Thursday. The CDC has screened roughly 2,400 people flying from Wuhan to five major U.S. airports and is considering expanding its screening. The agency has increased its travel warning for all of China, asking people traveling to practice enhanced precautions. Chinese health officials are warning that the virus could be much more contagious than initially thought, as infected patients can spread the flu-like illness before showing any symptoms. It has also expanded screening to 20 U.S. airports to screen nearly all passengers traveling from China. Read more coronavirus updates here.
MONDAY, JAN. 27
China’s coronavirus could threaten pharma’s ingredient sourcing
The pharmaceutical industry is on guard over the adequacy of its global supply chain as the coronavirus spreads through China. The country has become a bigger player in the market for active pharmaceutical ingredients during the past 10 years. It is now home to 13% of all facilities that make ingredients for medicines that are sold in the U.S., according to the FDA. For comparison’s sake, 28% of such facilities are in the U.S. and 26% are in the European Union. Most of China’s ingredient production is in the Zhejiang province along the East China Sea and far from the city Wuhan, where the outbreak began. But the Chinese government is increasingly locking down portions of the country as the virus spreads. Steven Lynn, a former director of the FDA Office of Pharmaceutical Quality, told STAT that the time to worry is now.
“I would be asking my supply chain folks what do we have coming from China, what’s our inventory, and if we don’t have enough, can we get as much as fast as possible? And remember, this isn’t just a U.S. problem. It’s a global problem if China starts shutting down its borders,” Lynn told STAT.
Read more here.
FRIDAY, JAN. 24
China’s viral outbreak overwhelms healthcare resources in city of Wuhan
China’s coronavirus outbreak is overwhelming the city of Wuhan’s healthcare resources. Hospitals throughout the Hubei province, home of most confirmed cases, have been pleading for donated supplies as the population has emptied store shelves of facemasks and hand sanitizer. The central government shipped protective clothing and gloves to the city from its reserve of medical supplies, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information, and promised 1 billion yuan ($144 million) to fight the deadly virus. Reportedly, China has dispatched 40 military doctors to a Wuhan hospital designated for treating infected patients and the government is rushing to build a new hospital. The Wuhan Children’s Hospital posted on China’s Twitter-like Weibo service Thursday, “There’s a shortage of medical supplies, help!!!”
Read more on the outbreak and response from the Wall Street Journal here.
More coronavirus resources from The Journal of Healthcare Contracting:
- Day-by-day Timeline of major events
- FAQ/Insights – Helpful and relevant links to help you keep track of the ongoing epidemic