The FDA has released a list of essential medical devices, medicines and “medical countermeasures” that the Trump administration ordered the agency to buy domestically to fight the novel coronavirus and future health and military crises.
Devices on the list include diagnostic testing kits and supplies for rapid test development and processing, personal protective equipment, devices for monitoring vital signs, vaccine delivery and managing acute illnesses, including ventilators, infusion pumps and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) therapy systems. The medical countermeasures include biologics, drugs and devices that the administration has deemed necessary to respond to future pandemics, epidemics, and chemical, biological and radiological/nuclear threats.
“When identifying essential medicines and medical countermeasures, we focused on including those that are medically necessary to have available in adequate supply which can be used for the widest populations to have the greatest potential impact on public health,” FDA commissioner Stephen Hahn said in a news release.
Trump signed an executive order in August requiring the agency to compile the list of 223 drug and biological product essential medicines and medical countermeasures. The list also includes 96 medical devices that the administration deemed countermeasures.
The list is available for download here. The agency is accepting public comment on the list here.
