Blog

Category: Therapeutics

Iora Health Raises $100 Million in Series E Financing

BOSTON, May 21, 2018 /PRNewswire/ — Iora Health, a high-growth, value based primary care provider with a focus on Medicare patients over 65 years of age, announced today that it has secured $100 million in funding to support continued growth and improved technology. The Series E financing is funded by global investors including .406 Ventures, Devonshire Investors, F-Prime Capital, Flare Capital Partners, GE Ventures, Humana, Khosla Ventures, Polaris Partners and Temasek.

 Iora Health currently serves patients across the country with a high impact, relationship-based care model that is provento delight patients, improve health, and reduce costs.

“Last year we doubled our number of patients, and we are on track to do the same this year. Iora’s vision since our inception has been to transform health care. To have truly transformative impact, we must continue to grow and care for more patients,” said Rushika Fernandopulle, Co-Founder and CEO of Iora Health. “With the support of our investors, this new funding will allow us to deliver our high quality care to more patients in new and existing markets.”

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Innovent Biologics Announces the Study Result of its Anti-PD-1 Antibody in Hodgkin Lymphoma

SUZHOU, China — Innovent Biologics (Suzhou) Co. Ltd. (Innovent Biologics) today announced the findings from the ORIENT-1 trial investigating Sintilimab, the company’s fully human anti-PD-1 therapy (IBI308), in patients with relapsed/refractory classical Hodgkin Lymphoma (r/r cHL). The preliminary result of the ORIENT-1 trial was published at ASCO’s official website on May 16, 2018. The updated and final analysis on its primary endpoint mentioned in this press release will be presented at the 2018 ASCO Annual Meeting in Chicago in a poster session on Saturday, June 4, 2018.

ORIENT-1 is a multicenter, single-arm, phase 2 registrational study assessing the efficacy and safety profile of IBI308. A total of ninety-six patients with r/r cHL were enrolled. It is the largest study for this indication in China.

The primary endpoint is objective response rate (ORR), defined as the percentage of study subjects who either experienced a partial response (PR) or a complete response (CR), which was assessed by independent radiographic review committee (IRRC) according to the revised international working group response criteria for malignant lymphoma in 2007 (IWG 2007). Complete response rate (CR) is a secondary endpoint.

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Turnstone Biologics Announces U.S. FDA Acceptance of IND for Immunotherapy Targeting HPV Positive Cancers

NEW YORK & OTTAWA, Ontario–(BUSINESS WIRE)–May 16, 2018–Turnstone Biologics today announced it has received U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance of its Investigational New Drug Application (IND) for MG1-HPV for the treatment of patients with human papillomavirus (HPV) positive solid tumors. Additionally, Turnstone today announced that it has entered into a clinical supply agreement with F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd (“Roche”) under which Roche will provide atezolizumab (Tecentriq ® ), its anti-PDL1 antibody, for use in combination with Turnstone’s Maraba virus immunotherapy platform, MG1.

Turnstone will investigate the safety and efficacy of MG1-HPV therapy in combination with atezolizumab across a range of HPV positive tumors in a Phase I/II clinical study expected to commence in the second quarter of 2018.

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TraceLink Achieves 69% Overall Revenue Growth in Q1 2018, Including 270% Revenue Growth in EMEA

NORTH READING, Mass. — TraceLink Inc., the World’s Largest Track and Trace Network for connecting the life sciences supply chain and providing real-time information sharing for better patient outcomes, today announced financial and company results for the first quarter of 2018.

Financial growth highlights for Q1 2018 include:

•A 69 percent year-over-year increase in Q1 revenue, including revenue growth in the following regions:
◦386 percent revenue growth in APAC;
◦270 percent revenue growth in EMEA; and,
◦159 percent revenue growth in India.

•A 43 percent year-over-year increase in all bookings for Q1, including a 177 percent increase in EMEA bookings for the quarter;
•A two-year revenue compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 70 percent; and,
•A 38 percent annual increase in customers for a total of 821 customers across 35 countries, demonstrating the largest customer base for pharmaceutical track and trace and serialization, spanning all segments within the global life sciences supply chain, including:

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Beam Therapeutics Launched to Develop Harvard Base Editing Technology toward Precision Genetic Medicines

Harvard innovations enable the correction of single-base mutations in DNA with unprecedented precision and efficiency

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Harvard University has granted a worldwide license to Beam Therapeutics, Inc., to develop and commercialize a suite of revolutionary DNA base editing technologies for the treatment of human disease.

The versatile platform of base editing technologies was invented by David R. Liu, PhD, Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, and visionary postdoctoral fellows and graduate students in his Harvard laboratory.

“We developed programmable molecular machines that go to a target site of our choosing in the genomic DNA of a cell and directly convert one base to another base without making a double-stranded break in the DNA,” said Liu, who is a cofounder of Beam.

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Semma Therapeutics Appoints Bastiano Sanna, Ph.D. as Chief Executive Officer and President

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Semma Therapeutics, Inc., a biotechnology company pioneering the curative use of stem cells in regenerative medicine, today announced the appointment of Bastiano Sanna, Ph.D., as Chief Executive Officer and President. Dr. Sanna will succeed Elizabeth Stoner, M.D., who has been serving as the Interim CEO and will remain as an advisor to the Company.

“Bastiano has the perfect set of skills and experiences to lead Semma through our next phase of growth as a company after a very successful Series B financing,” said Mark Fishman, M.D., Chairman of Semma’s Board of Directors. “Few leaders have such a strong cell therapy background combined with his level of strategic and business experience.”

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New England Venture Capital Association names 2018 NEVY Awards winners – Devoted Health named Healthcare IT Company of the Year

The New England Venture Capital Association named the winners of the 2018 NEVY Awards Wednesday night at a Star Wars-themed event at the House of Blues in Boston.

The awards honor both startups and investors in tech and life sciences. This year’s winners included Desktop Metal, the 3D-printing startup that flew to unicorn status in 2017 after only 21 months in business.

See the full list of winners below and the nominees here.

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F-Prime Capital Partners Announces Parker Moss as New Entrepreneur-in-Residence

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–F-Prime Capital Partners, a global venture capital firm focused on investments in life sciences, healthcare and technology, today announced that Parker Moss has joined the firm as entrepreneur-in-residence. Parker will be based in London and will focus on health technology investments and company-creation activities.

“We are excited to welcome Parker to the firm – he is an important addition to the F-Prime team,” said Stephen Knight, managing partner of F-Prime Capital Partners. “Parker’s experience as a senior executive in the healthcare and telecom industries, and his strong conviction and determination for transforming healthcare delivery, will be invaluable as we push further into building and investing in health technology companies. His hands-on experience on the frontline of both the hospital and the community sectors of the NHS has given him an acute sense of the barriers and opportunities for disruptive innovation in medical research, on the wards and in patients’ homes, and we look forward to working with Parker to bring some of these exciting opportunities to market.”

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Buoy Health and CVS Health Provide Easy Access to Affordable Care

Buoy Health leverages advanced AI to help consumers nationwide to identify the right course of treatment, including access to care at MinuteClinic locations

BOSTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Buoy Health (www.buoyhealth.com), a health technology company that develops digital tools to help people from the moment they get sick to start their care on the right foot, today announced that it has entered into an agreement with CVS Health’s MinuteClinic subsidiary to provide patients with access to convenient, accessible and affordable care at any of its over 1,100 MinuteClinic locations nationwide. The relationship, which will be available to patients through www.buoyhealth.com later this year, will leverage Buoy’s advanced AI to help patients not only gain a more accurate assessment of what is wrong, but to help them get better faster by providing them with easy access to care at a nearby MinuteClinic, when appropriate.

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Science 2 Startup Symposium Convened Over 230 Academic Researchers, Venture Capitalists, Entrepreneurs, and Pharmaceutical Executives, Creating Connections that can Advance Scientific Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Symposium Exposed Academics to Investors and Executives Who Could Help Guide Them to the Next Level

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., May 04, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Science 2 Startup, an invitation-only event, convened over 230 members of the biotech ecosystem at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard last week. Approximately half of the attendees were venture capital and other investors, a quarter were biopharma executives and entrepreneurs, and a quarter were the academic investigators and their technology transfer professionals from top research institutions.

Science 2 Startup was created and presented by Boston-area venture capital firms Atlas Venture, F-Prime Capital Partners, and SV Health Investors. The scientists and other academic representatives came from three countries and all over the US.

The agenda underscored the intensity of the biotech ecosystem and the relevance and interdependence of all of its players: scientists, entrepreneurs, the pharmaceutical industry, and funding sources.

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