Self-cleaning mask can kill viruses with heat from phone charger

Israeli researchers say they have invented a reusable face mask that can kill the coronavirus with heat by drawing power from a mobile phone charger.
The disinfecting process takes about 30 minutes – and users should not wear the mask while it is plugged in, said Professor Yair Ein-Eli, who led the research team at Technion University in Haifa.
The new mask has a USB port that connects to a power source such as a standard cellphone charger that heats an inner layer of carbon fibers to up to 70 degrees Celsius (158 degrees Fahrenheit), high enough to kill viruses.

Ein-Eli said disposable masks, in high demand globally during the health crisis, were not economically or environmentally friendly.
“You have to make it reusable and friendly, and this is our solution,” he said about the invention.
The prototype looks like a standard N95 face mask, with a valve at the front and rubber bands to hold it in place around the head.

The researchers submitted a patent for the mask in the United States in late March and say they are discussing commercializing the product with the private sector.
It will likely sell at a $1 premium over the price of a typical disposable face mask, the researchers say.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-israel-mask/self-cleaning-mask-can-kill-viruses-with-heat-from-phone-charger-researchers-say-idUSKBN23O11O

U.S. doctors skeptical of reported COVID breakthrough

The report on Tuesday of a powerful treatment for the new coronavirus brought skepticism along with optimism among U.S. doctors, who said the recent withdrawal of an influential COVID-19 study left them wanting to see more data.

Global pressure to find a cure or vaccine has accelerated the process of reporting coronavirus study results, feeding confusion over whether therapies have been proven effective. One influential COVID study was withdrawn this month by respected British medical journal The Lancet over data concerns.
Researchers in Britain said dexamethasone, used to fight inflammation in other diseases, reduced death rates of the most severely ill COVID-19 patients by around a third, and they would work to publish full details as soon as possible.
But hours later South Korea’s top health official cautioned about the use of the drug for COVID-19 patients due to potential side effects.

“We have been burned before, not just during the coronavirus pandemic but even pre-COVID, with exciting results that when we have access to the data are not as convincing,” said Dr. Kathryn Hibbert, director of the medical intensive care unit at Harvard’s Massachusetts General Hospital.
Hibbert said published data would help her evaluate the findings and see which patients benefited the most and at what dose.
“I am very hopeful this is true because it would be a huge step forward in being able to help our patients,” she said, but added she would not change practice at this point.
Steroids can suppress immune systems, warned Dr. Thomas McGinn, deputy physician-in-chief at New York’s largest healthcare system, Northwell Health where, he told Reuters, physicians are using steroids on a case-by-case basis.

“We have to see what the study looks like given the current environment of retractions,” said McGinn. “I just wait to see the real data, see if it’s peer reviewed and gets published in a real journal, he said.
University of Washington professor of medicine Dr Mark Wurfel urged the researchers to put out data before official publication.
“That would be very, very helpful in terms of helping us align our patient populations with theirs and decide whether it’s appropriate to apply this therapy to our patients.”
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-steroid-data/show-me-the-data-u-s-doctors-skeptical-of-reported-covid-breakthrough-idUSKBN23N3ER

WHO moves to update COVID-19 guidance after ‘great news’ in drug study

The World Health Organization (WHO) said it was moving to update its guidelines on treating people stricken with COVID-19 to reflect results of a clinical trial that showed a cheap, common steroid can help save critically ill patients.

Trial results announced on Tuesday showed dexamethasone, used since the 1960s to reduce inflammation in diseases such as arthritis, cut death rates by around a third among the most severely ill COVID-19 patients admitted to hospital.
The WHO’s clinical guidance for treating patients infected with the new coronavirus is aimed at doctors and other medical professionals and seeks to use the latest data to inform clinicians on how best to tackle all phases of the disease, from screening to discharge.
Although the dexamethasone study’s results are preliminary, the researchers behind the project said it suggests the drug should immediately become standard care in severely stricken patients.
For patients on ventilators, the treatment was shown to reduce mortality by about one third, and for patients requiring only oxygen, mortality was cut by about one fifth, according to preliminary findings shared with WHO.

The benefit was only seen in patients seriously ill with COVID-19 and was not observed in patients with milder disease.
The positive news comes as coronavirus infections accelerated in some places including the United States and as Beijing cancelled scores of flights to help contain a fresh outbreak in China’s capital.
“This is the first treatment to be shown to reduce mortality in patients with COVID-19 requiring oxygen or ventilator support,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement late on Tuesday. The agency said it was looking forward to the full data analysis of the study in coming days.
“WHO will coordinate a meta-analysis to increase our overall understanding of this intervention. WHO clinical guidance will be updated to reflect how and when the drug should be used in COVID-19,” the agency added.
But South Korea’s top health official cautioned about the use of the drug for COVID-19 patients.

“(It) has already long been used in South Korean hospitals to treat patients with different inflammation,” Jeong Eun-kyeong, head of Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC).
“But some experts have warned of the drug not only reducing the inflammatory response in patients, but also the immune system and may trigger side effects. KCDC is discussing the use of it for COVID-19 patients.”
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-steroid-who/who-moves-to-update-covid-19-guidance-after-great-news-in-drug-study-idUSKBN23O0LU

Novartis Cosentyx gets FDA OK for new spondyloarthritis indication

• FDA approval for Cosentyx is based on the Phase III PREVENT trial, demonstrating efficacy in active non-radiographic axial spondyloarthritis (nr-axSpA), which is part of the axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA) disease spectrum
• There are an estimated 2.7M people living with axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA) in the US; however, it remains significantly underdiagnosed(1,2)
• nr-axSpA approval is the fourth indication for Cosentyx, which is backed by five years of clinical data supporting long-term safety and efficacy across moderate to severe plaque psoriasis (PsO), psoriatic arthritis (PsA) and ankylosing spondylitis (AS)(3-8)

https://www.biospace.com/article/releases/novartis-cosentyx-receives-fda-approval-for-new-indication-to-treat-active-non-radiographic-axial-spondyloarthritis/

Japan’s Nichi-Iko jumps on hopes for steroid sales boost to treat COVID-19

Shares in Japanese generic drug maker Nichi-Iko Pharmaceutical Co, whose products include steroid drug dexamethasone, jumped nearly 5% on Wednesday after trial results showed it helped reduce death rates of COVID-19 patients.
Researchers in Britain said on Tuesday dexamethasone, used to reduce inflammation in other diseases such as arthritis, cut death rates of the most severely ill COVID-19 patients by around a third, making it the first drug shown to be able to save the lives of people with the respiratory disease.
Peter Horby, an Oxford University professor co-leading the trial, known as the RECOVERY trial, said in a statement that the drug should become standard of care for patients sick enough to require oxygen treatment.
“Dexamethasone is inexpensive, on the shelf, and can be used immediately to save lives worldwide,” he said
Nichi-Iko said it and Bristol-Myers Squibb unit Celgene both sell the drug in Japan.
Nichi-Iko, which sells the drug under the brand name Decadron, is aware of the British research but hasn’t as yet seen a surge in demand, spokesman Taichi Kitao. The company is ready to proactively supply the drug as needed, he said.
Britain’s health ministry said the drug had been approved for use in the state-run health service, export restrictions had been introduced and 200,000 courses of the treatment had been stockpiled.
Dexamethasone is currently on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s list of drugs in shortage. Still several suppliers including one of the largest – Germany’s Fresenius SE – say they have the drug on the hand.

https://www.marketscreener.com/NICHI-IKO-PHARMACEUTICAL-6814872/news/Japan-s-Nichi-Iko-jumps-on-hopes-for-steroid-sales-boost-to-treat-COVID-19-30782304/

Companies turn to wearables to fight COVID-19

Starting with its facility in Kent, Washington, Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) will begin deploying devices today – shaped like clear plastic sleeves – that emit a loud beeping noise and flashing lights when workers are too close to one another.

Covid-detecting “smart rings” are also being trialed by staff at Las Vegas Sands (NYSE:LVS). The products, made by Finnish startup Oura, can reportedly predict the onset of coronavirus symptoms, like subtle changes in temperature, sleep patterns and heart rate.

https://seekingalpha.com/news/3583660-companies-turn-to-wearables-to-fight-covidminus-19

Bayer scraps U.S. plans to produce crop chemical blocked by court

Bayer AG said on Tuesday it will scrap a nearly $1 billion project to produce the chemical dicamba in the United States, but said the move is unrelated to a federal court decision that blocked sales of weed killers based on the product.
The German-based company is moving to save cash as it wages an expensive legal battle to fight allegations that another product, its glyphosate-based weed killer Roundup, causes cancer. Bayer denies the claims.
The company said it is halting work on a new dicamba plant in Luling, Louisiana, because global overcapacity for producing the chemical made the investment less attractive. Instead, Bayer will continue to buy dicamba and produce its XtendiMax herbicide at another plant in Iowa, according to a statement.

“Stopping construction enables us to preserve cash and prioritize our investments in new innovation for farmers,” Bayer said.
A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on June 3 that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency substantially understated the risks related to the use of dicamba, which is sprayed on soybeans and cotton that Bayer genetically engineered to resist the chemical. The herbicides are known to drift away and damage other crops that are not resistant.
The EPA subsequently said farmers can use existing supplies of dicamba-based herbicides, which are also sold by rivals BASF SE and Corteva Inc, until July 31.

“While the timing of the court’s ruling is coincidental and unfortunate, it was not a factor in our reassessment of the Luling plant,” Bayer said, adding that it still supports dicamba.
Monsanto, which Bayer bought for $63 billion two years ago, in 2015 announced preliminary plans to spend more than $1 billion over the next three to five years at its Luling site to produce dicamba. Bayer also inherited the legal dispute over glyphosate from the takeover.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-bayer-dicamba-plant/bayer-scraps-u-s-plans-to-produce-crop-chemical-blocked-by-court-idUSKBN23N3I4