China’s financial hub of Shanghai said on March 27 it would lock down the city in two stages to carry out COVID-19 testing over a nine-day period, after reporting a new daily record for asymptomatic infections.

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said on March 18 that countries should provide free COVID-19 testing for refugees from Ukraine to avoid outbreaks as more than three million people flee their war-stricken homeland.

Maybe Spider-Man was on to something. Although spider silk and synthetic forms have been used for a wide range of applications – including bullet-proof clothing, biodegradable bottles, and bandages and surgical thread – new research suggests it may have a use for cancer therapies.

Genome sequencing group Illumina on March 15 launched a cancer test in Europe that checks for a wide range of tumor genes in one tissue sample, potentially helping patients with rare diseases to be matched up with treatment options.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on the biopharma industry. From artificial intelligence breakthroughs to at-home genetic testing, BioSpace reviews some of the ways COVID-19 has changed the industry and what we may see in the near future. 

The COVID-19 pandemic brought the diagnostic industry to a new level of test manufacturing, and those capabilities have sparked at-home testing for a variety of other conditions and health metrics. 

COVID tests

The United States government procured more than 100 million additional COVID-19 tests from testmaker iHealth Lab Inc. as part of the White House’s plan to distribute 500 million free at-home tests across the country, the Department of Defense said Jan. 28.

When used in children, rapid antigen tests for detecting the coronavirus do not meet accuracy criteria set by the World Health Organization and U.S. and UK device regulators, according to researchers who reviewed 17 studies of the tests. Other research appears to confirm smaller, earlier studies that suggested nursing mothers are unlikely to transmit the coronavirus in breastmilk.

The U.S. government will make 400 million non-surgical N95 masks from its strategic national stockpile available for free to the public starting next week, a White House official said, marking the Biden administration’s latest effort to help curb the COVID-19 pandemic.

U.S. households can order four free at-home COVID-19 tests from the website COVIDTests.gov starting on Jan. 19 with shipping expected within seven to 12 days of ordering, the White House said on Jan. 14.