Good afternoon, readers.
Yet another coronavirus test is hitting the market—and it comes with a unique twist.
Henry Schein, a major medical distributor that works across a wide variety of of health care-related industries, claims it has a blood test for coronavirus which can be conducted in as little as 15 minutes.
“Henry Schein has played a key role in providing point-of-care testing to health care professionals, and is now responding to the urgent need for wide availability of rapid point-of-care testing for COVID-19,” said CEO Stanley M. Bergman in a statement.
That has some intriguing implications. For one thing: Most of the current COVID-19 tests require nasal and oral swabs. Theoretically, Henry Schein’s test could be done on-site with a pinprick and within an hour.
What’s more questionable is how that process would play out with patients and what financial costs they would have to bear. The company has unveiled a Q&A about their testing procedures.
The science of the blood test is fascinating. It focuses on antibodies, the proteins that show up when the immune system responds to an infection In this case, a past or present infection. And because it’s a blood test, the company didn’t have to get an emergency authorization from the FDA.
Read on for the day’s news.
Sy Mukherjee
sayak.mukherjee@fortune.com
@the_sy_guy
DIGITAL HEALTH
Teladoc is ramping up its staff as virtual doctor visit demand swells. Digital health and telemedicine firm Teladoc is hiring about 700 new representatives as the demand for virtual doctor visits swell amid the coronavirus outbreak, according to an email the company sent to Fortune. This is a partnership with the startups Nexrep and Five9, which would then help Teladoc manage its consumer load in a time when virtual checkups are on the rise.
INDICATIONS
Bristol-Myers Squibb snags a major FDA approval. In some non-coronavirus news, drug giant Bristol-Myers Squibb has won FDA approval for Zeposia, a drug meant to treat a form of the degenerative disorder multiple sclerosis (MS). Oh, but there's still a coronavirus angle to this—the potential blockbuster drug may not fully hit the market anytime soon as the firm debates when, exactly, to launch the product in the midst of this pandemic.
THE BIG PICTURE
A resource for keeping up with COVID-19 cases. For all of you trying to track the coronavirus outbreak, here's a great service—Johns Hopkins' Extremely Online COVID-19 map. It's updated in close to real time (which is necessary because information trickles upwards rather than the other way around in situations like this). What we know so far: The U.S., Italy, and China are just about 2,000 cases apart when it comes to confirmed cases. And multiple experts believe the U.S. could easily become the nation with the most cases.
About those coronavirus stimulus checks. My colleague Rey Mashayekhi has your go-to guide about the stimulus planning for the coronavirus—including the check you may (or may not) get in the coming months. (Fortune)
