Diagnostics Seen as Key to Targeting Long-Term Covid Patients

Investment and collaboration in diagnostic tools will be critical to helping identify and produce more targeted treatments for patients recovering from the coronavirus, acting FDA Commissioner Janet Woodcock said.

Finding the predictive markers to determine who will have serious post-infection risks, such as pulmonary embolisms and inflammatory problems, is one hurdle in the fight against Covid-19 as the number of global infections approaches 101 million, Woodcock said Wednesday at the Precision Medicine World Conference.

Most people who get the virus recovery fully, but some develop inflammation affecting the immune system. That’s true for both those who were hospitalized and outpatients. ...