HONG KONG and SHANGHAI, China, March 26, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Hua Medicine, a clinical-stage drug development company developing novel therapies for the treatment of Type 2 diabetes, announced the closing of a combined Series D & Series E financing of US$ 117.4 million. The financing included new investors Blue Pool Capital Limited, GIC Private Limited, AVICT Global, 6 Dimensions Capital, Adrian Cheng (via K11 Investments), Ping An Ventures, Mirae Asset Financial Group and certain healthcare funds managed by a leading US investment management firm, as well as existing investors ARCH Venture Partners, Eight Roads, F-Prime Capital Partners, Venrock, WuXi AppTec Corporate Ventures, Ally Bridge Group, Harvest Investments, co-founders and management. The financing is expected to fully fund the Company through completion of its two Phase 3 trials and commercial launch in China for Dorzagliatin (HMS5552), a new first-in-class, 4th-generation glucokinase activator (GKA) that treats the impaired blood glucose sensor function, and thereby seeks to address the underlying cause of Type 2 diabetes.
FlexTrade Integrates Kensho Actionable Intelligence into FlexTRADER EMS
LONDON–FlexTrade Systems (@FlexTrade), a global leader in multi-asset execution and order management systems, today announced the integration of Kensho Technologies pre-trade analytics solution into the FlexTRADER EMS, which provides a detailed, real-time event feed to assist a trader’s decision-making process when executing a trade.
“This integration with Kensho brings a unique level of ‘market context’ to the FlexTRADER blotter,” said Andy Mahoney, Head of Sales at FlexTrade UK. “By including Kensho data in pre-trade and real-time analysis, we ensure that traders will receive a more meaningful picture of performance.”
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Kensho captures events to surface company-specific key developments, such as product launches, mergers and acquisitions or corporate announcements. These events come from reputable news outlets and other sources, and cover an assortment of categories, including regulatory events, partnerships, investments and corporate actions.
Cancer biotech Surface Oncology files for a $75 million IPO
Surface Oncology, a clinical-stage biotech developing next generation antibody cancer therapies, filed on Friday with the SEC to raise up to $75 million in an initial public offering.
The Cambridge, MA-based company was founded in 2014 and booked $13 million in sales for the 12 months ended December 31, 2017. It plans to list on the Nasdaq under the symbol SURF. Surface Oncology filed confidentially on November 17, 2017. Goldman Sachs, Cowen & Company and Evercore ISI are the joint bookrunners on the deal. No pricing terms were disclosed.
Oviva Diabetes Support scoops annual award at Diabetes UK Conference
Oviva has been awarded the prestigious Diabetes UK conference award for outstanding contribution to the evaluation of education and self-management in diabetes care.
Selected as first out of hundreds of submissions from across the country, this demonstrates the transformational potential of digital solutions in improving health outcomes within the NHS.
The Oviva Diabetes Support programme provides people with type 2 diabetes remote, specialist care from a dietitian over the telephone or using a smartphone app, as well as access to an online learning portal to learn more about their condition. This has been shown to help people with type 2 diabetes improve their health and in turn, supports the NHS to save costs over the longer-term due to a reduction in preventable complication rates and medication needs, reducing pressure on stretched NHS resources.
Orchard Therapeutics Strengthens Executive Leadership Team with Appointment of Chief Commercial Officer and General Counsel
London, UK — Orchard Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biotechnology company dedicated to transforming the lives of patients with rare disorders through innovative gene therapies, today announced two key additions to its executive leadership team, appointing Jason Meyenburg as chief commercial officer and John Ilett as general counsel & company secretary.
Mark Rothera, Orchard’s CEO, stated: “I am delighted to welcome Jason and John to Orchard’s executive leadership team. We are making great strides toward building a leading, global, fully-integrated company bringing transformative gene therapies to patients. Both Jason and John’s skills and experience will be essential in delivering Orchard’s vision, especially as we prepare for potential commercialization of our lead program as early as 2019.”
Chief commercial officer Jason Meyenburg brings extensive global commercialization experience to Orchard including the launch of multiple therapies for ultra-rare life-threatening diseases, new market entry strategies, market access and organizational development. He joins the company to lead the global commercialization of gene therapies for primary immune deficiencies and inherited metabolic disorders. Orchard anticipates submitting a biological license application for its lead program OTL-101 for ADA-SCID (adenosine deaminase severe combined immunodeficiency) in 2018.
Unum Therapeutics (UNUM) to Raise $75 Million in IPO
Unum Therapeutics (UNUM) is planning to raise $75 million in an initial public offering on Thursday, March 29th, IPO Scoop reports. The company will issue 5,800,000 shares at a price of $12.00-$14.00 per share.
In the last twelve months, Unum Therapeutics generated $8.4 million in revenue and had a net loss of $25.6 million. Unum Therapeutics has a market-cap of $384.6 million.
Morgan Stanley and Cowen served as the underwriters for the IPO and SunTrust Robinson Humphrey and Wedbush Securities were co-managers.
Surface Oncology Announces First Patient Dosed in Phase 1 Clinical Trial of SRF231
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Surface Oncology, an immuno-oncology company developing next-generation antibody therapies that target the tumor microenvironment, today announced that the first patient was treated in its Phase I trial of SRF231, the company’s lead product candidate. SRF231 is a fully human antibody that inhibits the activity of CD47, a protein overexpressed on many types of cancer cells which prevents them from being engulfed and eliminated by macrophages.
“The initiation of this clinical trial is a milestone for Surface and demonstrates the outstanding progress we’ve made in advancing our innovative oncology pipeline,” said Rob Ross, M.D., chief medical officer of Surface Oncology. “SRF231 is the first of what we expect will be multiple novel agents that we bring into clinical development to help patients suffering from cancer.”
Initially, this multi-center, open-label Phase I trial will evaluate the safety and tolerability of SRF231 in multiple ascending doses in patients with advanced solid tumors and hematologic malignancies with the objective of establishing a recommended dose for further study. Following the dose escalation component of the trial, Surface intends to evaluate the safety and efficacy of SRF231 in cohorts of patients with specific types of cancer.
Flywire and Flutterwave Partner on Cross-Border Payments & Receivables in Nigeria
BOSTON and LONDON and LAGOS, Nigeria — Flywire, a provider of global payment and receivables solutions for education, healthcare, and business, today announced a new partnership with Flutterwave, a payments API that makes it easier for banks and businesses to process payments across Africa. Flywire will integrate Flutterwave’s Rave payment platform as a preferred option for students, patients, and businesses in Nigeria making cross-border payments via the Flywire platform.
Nigeria is a thriving market for cross-border payments. It is the number one source of international students and patients from Africa with approximately 15,000 Nigerians studying at British colleges and universities during the 2016/2017 academic year1. Another 10,000 plus studied in the US, contributing an estimated $US 301 million to the US economy.2 According to the World Bank, Nigerian’s also spend $US 1 billion annually on medical treatment abroad. Nigeria also has a thriving global trade, exporting almost $US 35 billion worth of goods and services each year, and importing over $US 30 billion worth of goods and services each year.
Biodesix Announces Biomarker Research Collaboration with Checkmate Pharmaceuticals
BOULDER, Colo. — Biodesix, Inc. (Boulder, CO, USA), a molecular diagnostics company has entered into a biomarker research collaboration with Checkmate Pharmaceuticals (Cambridge, MA), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing novel approaches for cancer immunotherapy.
The collaboration will focus on the analysis of the circulating proteome of advanced melanoma patients treated with CMP-001 in combination with pembrolizumab, utilizing Biodesix’s proprietary Diagnostic Cortex® artificial intelligence-based biomarker discovery platform.1 The platform enables the development of clinically-relevant proteomic liquid biopsy tests. CMP-001 is a first-in-class CpG-A oligonucleotide that activates the innate immune system via Toll-like receptor 9 (TLR9). The combination therapy with pembrolizumab has the potential to improve the response rate of cancer patients receiving checkpoint inhibitor therapies and to increase the magnitude and duration of the patients’ anti-tumor responses, providing added clinical benefit. A serum-based diagnostic test, if found to be associated with a favorable response to CMP-001, could prove to be clinically useful for identifying patients more likely to benefit from the combination therapy.
Protenus CEO at AMIA 2018 Informatics Summit: Health Systems Can Prevent Drug Diversion With Artificial Intelligence
SAN FRANCISCO — In the midst of an alarming opioid epidemic, drug diversion is playing a contributing role. As much as 10 to 15 percent of all healthcare professionals will misuse drugs or alcohol at some point during their careers, and hospital leaders are beginning to utilize big data analytics and artificial intelligence platforms to combat addiction inside their systems.
Speaking this week at the American Medical Informatics Association 2018 Informatics Summit, Nick Culbertson, CEO and Co-founder of Protenus, a healthcare compliance analytics platform, detailed the impact drug diversion is having on healthcare workforce and patients, as well as strategies healthcare systems use to proactively detect and prevent drug diversion incidents from wreaking havoc within their organization.