Blog

Category: Therapeutics

WelbeHealth Announces $15 Million of Funding from F-Prime Capital and .406 Ventures

WelbeHealth, a healthcare services company delivering coordinated and value-based care to medically frail seniors, has raised $15 million in Series A funding led by F-Prime Capital and .406 Ventures. Jon Lim, a partner of F-Prime Capital, and Liam Donohue, managing partner of .406 Ventures, will join WelbeHealth’s board in conjunction with the financing. WelbeHealth will use the financing to develop its initial market and roll out new initiatives to improve the quality of care for seniors.

“We founded this company around the mission of serving our most vulnerable seniors with greater quality and compassion in a value-based model,” said Si France, MD, co-founder and CEO of WelbeHealth. “So we were very deliberate in selecting successful investors who have experience partnering with entrepreneurs to build truly mission-driven healthcare services companies.” F-Prime Capital and .406 Ventures have been early investors in leading healthcare startups such as Iora Health, US HealthVest, Quartet Health, AbleTo, Health Dialog, and axialHealthcare.

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PatientPing partners with Hackensack Meridian Health to bring care coordination to health care providers in New Jersey

PatientPing, a health technology company that connects providers to seamlessly coordinate patient care, announced today that it has partnered with Hackensack Meridian Health in New Jersey, marking PatientPing’s seventh state where it’s achieving higher quality care through better patient care coordination. This partnership with New Jersey’s most integrated and comprehensive health care system will ultimately encompass full data sharing across all of Hackensack Meridian Health’s 13 hospitals, meaning that providers in the state will be able to see where patients are admitted, discharged or transferred to/from a Hackensack Meridian Health Hospital.

“Hackensack Meridian Health is dedicated to providing well-orchestrated, quality care to our patients,” said Patrick Young, president of Population Health, Hackensack Meridian Health. “Our relationship with PatientPing underscores this commitment by offering a simple yet powerful solution that enables the delivery of coordinated care across our continuum from our hospitals to our outpatient and post-acute facilities.”

PatientPing aims to advance medical information transparency between health care providers by applying its technology to improve patient care. Upon joining PatientPing, providers receive “Pings,” or real-time notifications, whenever their patients receive care at a wide range of facilities in NJ and beyond. At the facility where patients are getting care, providers receive care instructions that include contact information for others on the patient’s care team as well as patient visit histories. By sharing this information in real time, providers are able to apply timely interventions, avoid unnecessary readmissions, and ensure safer care transitions for their patients.

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US HealthVest opens second Atlanta hospital, serves unmet need for specialized psychiatric care

US HealthVest announced the opening of Ridgeview Institute – Monroe, a 70-bed psychiatric hospital that provides a full continuum of inpatient and outpatient psychiatric care to patients of all ages.

“We are excited to bring these vital services to the community,” said Richard Kresch, M.D., President and CEO of US HealthVest. “With two hospitals in the Atlanta region, we are well positioned to treat the increasing and unmet need for specialized psychiatric care in the growing metro area.”

Located at 709 Breedlove Drive in Monroe, the hospital provides behavioral health and addiction treatment services for children, adolescents, adults and senior adults. Comprehensive services include free 24/7 assessments, inpatient and intensive outpatient care. A full range of specialized programs such as a Women’s Program and a Geriatric Program will also be provided.

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Surface Oncology Welcomes Industry Leader Daniel S. Lynch as Chairman of Board of Directors

Surface Oncology, an immuno-oncology company developing next-generation immunotherapies that target the tumor microenvironment, today announced the appointment of industry leader Daniel S. Lynch, as Executive Chairman of the company’s Board of Directors. Mr. Lynch’s appointment brings additional industry leadership experience to the Board as the company advances its pipeline of next-generation immunotherapies towards the clinic. Mr. Lynch will succeed Dr. David Grayzel, a co-founder of Surface Oncology who has served as Chairman since the company was formed. Dr. Grayzel will continue as a member of the Board.

 

With over 25 years of industry experience, Mr. Lynch has advised and served as Chairman or Board member for a number of top tier biotechnology companies. He currently serves on the Boards of several biotech companies, including Bluebird Bio, RaNA Therapeutics, and BluePrint Medicines. He previously served on the Boards of a range of additional companies, including Nimbus Therapeutics, Avila Therapeutics, and Stromedix. Over the course of his career, Mr. Lynch has successfully helped to guide multiple biotech companies through their entry into the public markets.

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Surface Oncology Appoints Robert Ross, MD as Chief Medical Officer

Surface Oncology, an immuno-oncology company developing next-generation immunotherapies that target the tumor microenvironment, today announced the appointment of Robert W. Ross, MD as its Chief Medical Officer. Dr. Ross will be responsible for advancing Surface Oncology’s development programs, including SRF231, a fully human CD47 antibody, into and through the clinic. Dr. Ross joins Surface from bluebird bio, where he was most recently head of the Oncology franchise and Senior Vice President of Clinical Development and pharmacovigilance.

“Immune therapy is the future of oncology treatment. In the last five years, with the introduction of immune system modulation, the lives of patients have been fundamentally changed, but there is clearly more work to do to bring more cures to patients,” said Dr. Ross. “Surface Oncology’s strategy targeting the various components of the tumor microenvironment has an excellent chance of achieving that goal. I look forward to working closely with this outstanding team to move their programs to the clinic as rapidly as possible.”

 

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PatientPing Raises $31.6 Million from Andreessen Horowitz and Leerink Transformation Partners to Accelerate Growth of its National Care Coordination Network

PatientPing, a health technology company that connects providers to seamlessly coordinate patient care, announced today that it has received $31.6 million in Series B funding led by Silicon Valley firm Andreessen Horowitz and Boston-based Leerink Transformation Partners (LTP). The funding will help fuel the company’s rapid expansion into new geographies and accelerate the development of product enhancements. PatientPing also plans to at least double the size of its team by actively hiring inspired change-makers for its growth, operations, engineering, and product development teams. This announcement comes just over a year after announcing $9.6 million in seed and series A funding, bringing the total funding amount to $41.2 million, to date.

PatientPing’s flagship product offers real-time notifications (“Pings”) to providers whenever their patients experience an admit, transfer or discharge to or from a facility. The Company has become the country’s leading provider of clinical event notifications, creating the nation’s largest community of providers working together to coordinate patient care. PatientPing’s product is unique in that it spans across the entire continuum of care—acute, ambulatory, and post-acute facilities—regardless of EMR, provider network, or other institutional barriers that have historically created silos between providers. At the facility where patients are getting care, providers also receive care instructions that include contact information for others on the patient’s care team as well as patient visit histories.

 

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Surface Oncology CD47 Program Demonstrates Promising Anti-Tumor Activity in Hematological Disease Models

Surface Oncology, an immuno-oncology company developing next-generation immunotherapies that target the tumor microenvironment, will present preclinical data on its CD47 program at the 58th American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting. The data demonstrate that SRF231, a fully human CD47 antibody, induces robust tumor cell phagocytosis and clearance, both alone and in combination with existing standard of care treatment.

 
“These data highlight the strong anti-tumor activity of SRF231 in hematological disease models,” said Vito Palombella, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer at Surface Oncology, “and further suggest that SRF231 has the potential to be the best-in-class CD47 antibody to help patients with a wide range of cancers.”

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TraceLink Raises $51.5M Series C to Accelerate Growth

TraceLink Inc., the World’s Largest Track and Trace Network for connecting the life sciences supply chain and eliminating counterfeit prescription drugs from the global marketplace, today announced that it has raised $51.5M in Series C financing led by Goldman Sachs Growth Equity (GS Growth), with participation from Series A and Series B investors, FirstMark Capital, Volition Capital, and F-Prime Capital. TraceLink is also announcing that Jason Kreuziger from Goldman Sachs and Amish Jani of FirstMark Capital have joined its Board of Directors.

This investment will enable TraceLink to improve its position in the global pharmaceutical track and trace industry, providing manufacturers, distributors and dispensers with a cost-effective solution to secure the drug supply chain and protect patients from counterfeit medicines, a problem that causes hundreds of thousands of deaths and leads to an estimated $75 billion in lost industry revenue each year. The TraceLink Life Sciences Cloud enables any company in the pharmaceutical supply chain to implement an interoperable system for tracking and tracing authentic prescription medicines, which will be required by law in 50 countries by the year 2020, to combat the rise of counterfeit drugs. Today, more than 450 life sciences companies rely on TraceLink to meet track and trace regulations worldwide.

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Surface Oncology Announces First Fully Human CD47 Antibody Entering Clinical Development in 2017

Surface Oncology, an immuno-oncology company developing next-generation immunotherapies that target the tumor microenvironment, will present preclinical data on SRF231, a fully human CD47 antibody, at the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer’s (SITC) annual meeting. Results from preclinical studies demonstrate that SRF231 is efficacious in preclinical in vivo models through macrophage-mediated anti-tumor activity. SRF231 is the lead compound in the Company’s growing pipeline and the first option target in the strategic collaboration with Novartis under which Surface has the option to retain US development and commercial rights.

“SRF231 is the first clinical candidate in our pipeline of next-generation immunotherapies and will be entering clinical trials in 2017. The results highlight SRF231’s potential as a best-in-class antibody for hematological and solid tumors.” said Detlev Biniszkiewicz, PhD, President and CEO of Surface Oncology. “This is the first of many Surface programs targeting the tumor microenvironment that could result in lasting benefits for patients who do not respond to the first-generation of immunotherapies.”

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Turnstone Biologics raises $41.4 Million Series B Financing

Turnstone Biologics Inc., a developer of novel oncolytic viral immunotherapies, today announced the completion of a $41.4 million series B financing led by new investor OrbiMed with participation from new investor F-Prime Capital Partners and existing investors FACIT and Versant Ventures, which led Turnstone’s series A financing.

This financing takes place less than a year from the series A that allowed the company to progress its lead asset through the initial Phase I/II trial to establish safety, maximum tolerated dose and initial evidence of immunological activity in patients with advanced solid and metastatic tumors. The series B will support completion of the ongoing Phase I/II trial, as well as fund three additional clinical programs that will start this year and next.

“We are taking a rapid and expansive approach to clinical development with the goals of exploiting the full potential of our platform and positioning it to most benefit patients,” said Turnstone CEO Sammy Farah, Ph.D. “There is reason to be excited about the heavily differentiated nature of our technology and the promising clinical results that have been generated to date.”

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