In a BioSpace interview, Sorrento Therapeutics executives emphasized the stringent process the company went through in identifying the antibody STI-1499, which demonstrated 100 percent inhibition of SARS-CoV-2 in laboratory tests.

Medical diagnostic firm PerkinElmer Inc. faces a federal investigation into the company’s role in an alleged Medicare fraud involving tens of thousands of unnecessary genetic cancer tests, according to three sources with knowledge of the probe and documents reviewed by Reuters.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorized at-home sample collection for LabCorp’s COVID-19 diagnostic kit, allowing patients to send in their nasal swab samples to the company’s labs for diagnosis.

The World Health Organization said all available evidence suggests the novel coronavirus originated in animals in China in late 2019 and was not manipulated or produced in a laboratory.

In the company’s daily blog about the precautions being taken to ensure continued service to the world, Amazon intends to build testing facilities for employees.

Merck & Co. Inc., Pfizer Inc., and Eli Lilly and Company announced medical service volunteer programs to enable employees who are licensed medical professionals to aid in the fight against COVID-19 while maintaining their base pay.

A summary of daily biopharma industry news regarding the novel coronavirus trending on March 27, 2020, with the FDA now working with 220 test developers.

As a critical industry during the COVID-19 pandemic, biopharma companies are expected to remain in operation – but with a skeleton staff. Anticipating stay-at-home mandates, life sciences companies and labs in especially hard-hit regions had already begun preparing.

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence promised that Americans would have access in the days ahead to more than 2,000 laboratories capable of processing coronavirus tests, and a leading expert said the country would launch a new phase of testing for the fast-spreading disease.

Companies from across the globe provide updates on their business and pipeline progress.