The Theranos trial won’t be starting any time soon

This summer’s biggest courtroom drama is on hold for the fall, as the fraud trial for Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes has been delayed in the name of coronavirus caution.

As STAT’s Rebecca Robbins reports, a federal judge rescheduled jury selection for Oct. 27. Holmes’s attorneys had requested a delay citing the extraordinary risk of packing a courtroom in the midst of a pandemic. The judge’s decision means Holmes and former deputy Sunny Balwani, each accused of lying to doctors and investors about the capabilities of Theranos’s blood-testing technology, have a few extra months to prepare their separate defenses.

The trial could be delayed even further if the U.S. cannot get a handle on the outbreak by October, a goal experts say would require widespread, reliable testing. If only there were a device that could ensure that.

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CRISPR could help test for coronavirus, with a catch

A CRISPR-powered test for coronavirus provided impressively fast results, according to newly published research, but its sensitivity appeared to lag behind the diagnostics now in use.

As STAT’s Erin Brodwin reports, researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, and scientists at the startup Mammoth Biosciences developed a test that can deliver results in about 40 minutes, besting the four to six hours required by traditional tests. The process also proved to be less resource- and labor-intensive.

However, the CRISPR test appeared to have a higher rate of false-negatives than the current standard. That could be because the CRISPR-based test requires higher viral concentrations to detect the presence of Covid-19, meaning it might be missing patients who are in the beginning or end stages of infection.

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A lucrative pivot to coronavirus

Yesterday, we pointed to a list of reasons investors should be cautious before buying into Athersys and its self-proclaimed potential to treat Covid-19 with a stem-cell therapy. Hours later, the company signed a deal to raise $50 million on the idea.

Athersys, headquartered in Cleveland, will use the proceeds to pay for a trial that will test whether its treatment, called MultiStem, can help Covid-19 patients suffering from acute respiratory distress syndrome, or ARDS.

The company’s share price has nearly tripled since the start of the year, trading at its highest valuation since 2015.

One way to advance a Covid-19 treatment: hiring a lobbyist

Arcturus Therapeutics is among the scores of biotech companies racing to develop a medicine that could help in the coronavirus crisis. But the San Diego company has taken one step Moderna Therapeutics, Vir Biotechnology, and CureVac have not: It hired a Washington lobbying firm.

According to an April 1 federal disclosure, Arcturus retained the services of Avenue Strategies, a firm co-founded by Corey Lewandowski, President Trump’s former campaign manager. The firm will be represented by Avenue CEO Barry Bennett, who was previously a senior advisor to the Trump campaign. The stated lobbying issue is “Arcturus Therapeutics' technology and science as a potential solution to limit the spread and adverse effects” of the coronavirus.

A spokesman for Arcturus didn’t respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

It’s not terribly common for loss-making, small-cap biotech companies to hire lobbyists. And what’s particularly odd about Arcturus’s decision to retain a U.S. lobbying firm is that the company doesn’t expect to sell its coronavirus product in the U.S. According to a filing with the SEC, Arcturus is developing its preclinical vaccine under a grant from the Singapore government. It expects to seek approval in Singapore and as a result doesn’t “anticipate sales of the vaccine, if successfully developed, to occur in the United States.”