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Category: Therapeutics

Adaptimmune Begins In-house T-Cell Therapy Manufacture at PA Plant

Adaptimmune Therapeutics has manufactured the first SPEAR-T cells for a patient at its Navy Yard facility, which will be the primary site for its future manufacturing requirements.

The company’s unique SPEAR (Specific Peptide Enhanced Affinity Receptor) T-cell platform enables the engineering of T-cells to target and destroy cancer, including solid tumors. Adaptimmune is currently conducting clinical trials with SPEAR T-cells targeting MAGE-A4, MAGE-A10, and AFP across several solid tumor indications.

Adaptimmune CEO James Noble told Biopharma-Reporter that he was confident that the Philadelphia-based Navy Yard facility would be able to cope with the company’s future manufacturing needs through clinical trials and potentially commercialization.

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PatientPing Announces National Collaboration with HCR ManorCare to Improve Health Outcomes

BOSTON — PatientPing, a health technology company that connects providers to seamlessly coordinate patient care, today announced a new collaboration with HCR ManorCare, a leading provider of short-term, post-acute services and longer-term care, to enable real-time patient care coordination. Over the past five years, PatientPing has been steadily expanding its care coordination network of participating providers state-by-state. With this national collaboration, PatientPing will more rapidly accelerate its expansion from nearly twenty states to the remainder of the country, with the aim of creating a national healthcare system in which providers can easily come together to ensure medical information is shared and care is coordinated, regardless of where a patient chooses to receive care.
With the PatientPing platform, HCR ManorCare will proactively monitor patient populations throughout the healthcare continuum and access valuable information to inform care decisions. These detailed insights into their patient population allow them to establish strategies around their post-acute services, reduce unnecessary hospital readmissions, and facilitate safer care transitions between providers to improve patient outcomes and drive revenue for the organization.

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Menlo Therapeutics Inc. Announces Pricing of Initial Public Offering of Common Stock

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. — Menlo Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:MNLO) today announced the pricing of the Company’s initial public offering of 7,000,000 shares of common stock at a public offering price of $17.00 per share, before underwriting discounts. All of the shares of common stock are being offered by Menlo. The Company has also granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase from the Company an additional 1,050,000 shares of common stock at the initial public offering price, less the underwriting discount. Menlo’s common stock has been approved for listing on The Nasdaq Global Select Market and is expected to begin trading under the ticker symbol “MNLO” on January 25, 2018. The offering is expected to close on January 29, 2018, subject to customary closing conditions.

Jefferies LLC, Piper Jaffray & Co. and Guggenheim Securities, LLC are acting as joint book running managers for the proposed offering. JMP Securities is acting as the lead manager for this offering.

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Procured Health Expands Focus, Becomes Lumere

 

CHICAGO — To better reflect its expanded focus, Procured Health, the leading provider of data-driven analytics, evidence and expert guidance to help health systems cut costs and reduce unwarranted clinical variation, has changed its name to Lumere.
“We are pleased to announce this expanded focus and new name as the move toward value-based care accelerates,” said Hani Elias, JD, MPH, Chief Executive Officer of Lumere. “We formed Procured Health in 2012 to help hospitals and physicians make evidence-based, data-driven medical device selection and utilization decisions. We have since realized that the need for evidence-based medicine extends beyond device selection and that health systems are eager to support physicians in their quest to improve patient outcomes and performance. We have expanded our capabilities significantly to meet these needs and feel this new identity more accurately represents our expanded scope and mission.”

Lumere is backed by world-class healthcare investors including Heritage Group, FCA Ventures and F-Prime Capital Partners. The firm’s expanded focus includes added capabilities that address medication utilization and physician performance. The insights and recommendations are derived from a proprietary database that includes outcomes data and clinically-vetted benchmarks.

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Aclaris Therapeutics Making Age Spots a Thing of the Past

Aging can bring unwelcome surprises, like crusty brown spots that gradually appear on your face, neck or trunk.

They’re called unflattering names: age spots, barnacles or, God help us, senile warts, but physicians know them as seborrheic keratosis lesions, or SK lesions, for short. They come in as many varieties as apples at a farmers’ market: waxy, warty, raised or flat. The good news is they’re benign.

Of course, that doesn’t stop many of the 83 million Americans who have them from kvetching. Sometimes the lesions itch, bleed or get irritated by a belt or a bra strap, but for the most part, they’re simply an unwelcome reminder that there’s much in life that’s out of our control.

And there hasn’t been an easy cosmetic treatment, until now.

On Dec. 14, the Food and Drug Administration approved a first-of-its-kind liquid called Eskata that targets these unsightly spots. By late April, people who have the means and the patience to sit through at least two visits to their dermatologist’s office can get rid of some raised spots.

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Cygnus super specialty hospital first to introduce Gastroenterology unit in Kaithal

In a major relief to residents of this town and surrounding areas, the Cygnus super specialty hospital here has started Gastroenterology unit which will be headed by Dr Rais Noor Khan (DM). Giving this information here today Dr Jasjit Singh (unit head) said that now onwards the patients suffering from stomach related diseases will not have to rush to other towns for treatment. He said that till now as this facility was not available in the district hospitals the patients had to rush to big towns or they depended on the services of visiting Doctors. Dr Raish Noor Khan said that endoscopy, colonoscopy, sigmodoscopy and all types of tests and biding to check seepage of blood, ERCP operations to remove stone in CBD will be performed here in this hospital. Dr Jasjit Singh said that now treatment for all most all major diseases heart , orthopedic, ENT , General surgery and facility of surgery in various other fields was available in Cygnus hospital Kaithal .UNI XC JS SHK 2102

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VitalWare names Sharon Prill as CMO and Jarrod Heinz as new CFO

Yakima, Washington — VitalWare™, a leading provider of healthcare revenue cycle SaaS solutions, has named Sharon Prill as CMO and Jarrod Heinz as CFO.

These executive appointments come as VitalWare celebrates an unprecedented year of revenue growth and continued operational expansion with the opening of their Dallas, TX affiliate office and the release of several new products, including OPPS calculator and its VitalAuditor™ Charge Capture module.

“I am thrilled to have Sharon and Jarrod join our executive leadership team. Their talents and diverse backgrounds will contribute greatly to help VitalWare achieve its goals and take us to that next level.” said Kerry Martin, President & CEO.

Prior to coming to VitalWare, Prill ran a successful management and marketing consultancy practice, working with SaaS digital startups and legacy organizations invested in digital transformation. Before that, she spent 20+ years in the media industry overseeing digital operations and leading new product development for several national media outlets.

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Adaptimmune Gets the Green Light for its New T-cell Cancer Therapy

Following successful pilot studies, Adaptimmune will increase the dose of its T-cell therapy 10-fold to see if it remains safe, while also assessing its cancer-fighting capacity.

Adaptimmune is a leader in the development of T-cell therapies for the treatment of cancer. It has been testing another one of its SPEAR T-cells in two pilot studies to determine the safety of its candidate in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), as well as bladder, melanoma, and head and neck cancers. The company will continue to provide safety and efficacy throughout 2018 as it accumulates.

T-cells can have trouble detecting cancer cells, but Adaptimmune engineers them to increase their affinity by producing new sequences in the complementarity determining regions (CDRs). These share similarities with CAR-T cells, which are genetically modified to express a Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR), enhancing their ability to recognise cancer cells. The company’s latest SPEAR T-cells target MAGE-A10, a highly immunogenic member of the MAGE-A family of cancer-testis antigens. It is expressed by a number of solid tumors and is often associated with later stage cancer.

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Denali Therapeutics and Takeda Collaborate to Develop and Commercialize Therapies for Neurodegenerative Diseases

OSAKA, Japan & SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, CA –Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited (TSE: 4502) and Denali Therapeutics (NASDAQ: DNLI) today announced that they have entered into a strategic option and collaboration agreement to develop and commercialize up to three specified therapeutic product candidates for neurodegenerative diseases. Each program is directed to a genetically validated target for neurodegenerative disorders, including Alzheimer’s disease and other indications, and incorporates Denali’s ATV platform for increased exposure of biotherapeutic products in the brain.

“This partnership further exemplifies Takeda’s continued commitment to developing genetically validated therapies for neurodegenerative diseases through an enhanced portfolio comprised of new modalities,” said Emiliangelo Ratti, Head of the Neuroscience Therapy Area at Takeda. “We are excited to partner with the Denali team, whose innovative technology is uniquely poised to deliver the next generation of antibody therapeutics for patients.”

“We are impressed with Takeda’s commitment to developing treatments for difficult to treat neurodegenerative diseases and look forward to partnering with them to bring medicines to patients,” said Denali CEO Ryan Watts, Ph.D. “Takeda has a great track record of partnering with biotech firms in addition to unique development expertise and a strong global commercial presence.”

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Quartet Health just raised $40 million to expand its healthcare platforms

Quartet Health announced today that it has secured an additional $40 million in funding to expand product capabilities across its primary care and behavioral health platforms. This latest Series C round was led by existing investors F-Prime Capital Partners and Polaris Partners, and also includes current funders Oak HC/FT and GV as well as a new investor, Deerfield Management. The round brings the company’s total funding to $87 million.
“Making collaboration between primary care physicians and behavioral health specialists work is a must if we are ever going to improve the overall health of our country,” said Quartet Health founder and CEO Arun Gupta. “The bridge between mental and physical health is being built, and it’s technology that’s leading the charge.”

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