AHA expands venture philanthropy accelerator strategy to help life science startups survive

from MedCity News by Stephanie Baum

A little more than a year ago the American Heart Association launched an accelerator to fund biotechnolgy and medical device startups to fill a crucial gap in research funding caused by the increasing hesitance of investors to risk support on early-stage innovation. Now, it’s getting ready for a $2 million fundraising round to invest in two companies by the end of the year. It’s also working with sister organizations and mission-driven investment organizations to identify areas of common interest.

In a phone interview with MedCity News, Ross Tonkens, the director of the Science & Technology Accelerator,and Major Gifts Officer Mark Germano said they’re  forming a group of donors who can provide expertise to screen applications. These donors have investment backgrounds steeped in biotechnology, drug development and medical devices. They also have expertise in legal issues, commercialization, IP, regulatory, clinical trial design and conduct issues. In a lot of cases, these are people who have had personal or close contact with people who have had cardiovascular disease or a stroke and want to see things move from the [lab] bench to bedside.

In the past year, says Tonkens, it has created a network of collaborative investors from other nonprofit foundations where there’s a strong likelihood that their interests would align. Tonkens said it’s working with 16 sister foundations such as the American Cancer Society and Diabetes Foundation to identify areas of common interest for collaborative investment. For example, a company developing a diagnostic for cardiovascular disease may also have applications for cancer. In addition to sister foundations, it is also looking at mission related investment organizations like BioMotiv — a for-profit division of the Herrington Project for Discovery and Development in Cleveland, Ohio. BioMotiv is aggressively looking for profit.

for complete article... http://bit.ly/13x8wdh

A new model of surgery for 2030: De-skilled, decentralized and device-driven

What’s the vision of medical device firms as they innovate for a new model of care, not just in the U.S. but globally?

What they see, according to a new report, is a two-tiered healthcare system that’s demanding more sophisticated, efficient devices for surgeries and, at the same time, more simple devices that can be used by patients, or “consumers.” Technology design and development firm Cambridge Consultants hosted a workshop with participants from companies like Covidien, Boston Scientific, C.R. Bard, Philips Healthcare and Harvard Medical School, and compiled their insight into a report that lays out the landscape for surgery in 2030.

A few major insights emerged from the workshop, the first being that frontline care organizations will consolidate and create international “mega hospitals.” A pickup in hospital M&A activity over the last few years shows we’re already headed in that direction. With that, care organizations will shift toward a common model of care and management, and result in a robust set of industry best practices.

Low-risk surgical procedures, and the tools needed to perform them, will increasingly be designed to be carried out in physicians’ offices or drop-in clinics, reserving use of high-cost infrastructure only for the most serious of procedures that require those resources — something we’re already seeing in gynecology and urology. Many patients will then recover at home with the use of monitoring devices.
For medical device makers, this means the move toward vertical integration, or “ownership of a disease.” They’ll also need to learn how to serve customers and not just treat patients as two-tier health systems develop, the report proposes.


Read more: http://medcitynews.com/2013/01/a-new-model-of-surgery-for-2030-deskilled-decentralized-and-device-driven/#ixzz2IKlyTgkG

Primary care doc: It’s “crazy” that doctors don’t consider costs in patient treatment plans

from MedCity News by Arundhati Parmar

It’s not just patients who are seeking price transparency.

For years, Leslie Ramirez, 46, a primary care, internal medicine doctor in Chicago, , has been frustrated by patients who do not adhere to her care program because they can’t afford to buy a particular medication or undergo a certain test.

“It was so disheartening to hear that the plans that I had made for them weren’t being followed because they couldn’t afford the things that I was telling them to do,” Ramirez, who sees a fair number of uninsured and ...

Primary care doc: It’s “crazy” that doctors don’t consider costs in patient treatment plans

Israeli device uses brain stimulation, cognitive training in daily Alzheimer’s treatment

TEL AVIV (Reuters) - Israel-based Neuronix, which has developed a non-invasive medical device to help to treat Alzheimer's disease, expects the system to be approved by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration in late 2014.

The device, which combines electromagnetic stimulation with computer-based cognitive training, is already approved for use in Europe, Israel and several Asian countries such as Singapore.
"You stimulate the brain on a biological level as well as on a cognitive level," Neuronix CEO Eyal Baror told Reuters, saying this double approach created longer-lasting benefits.

The device, which consists of a chair containing an electronic system and software in the back and a coil placed at the head, has been tested on mild to moderate Alzheimer's patients who suffer from dementia but are not totally dependent.

for complete article, Israeli device uses brain stimulation, cognitive training in daily Alzheimer’s treatment

Recycle, reduce, reuse: Americans’ heart devices reimplanted safely in India, from MedCity News

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - U.S. patients' used heart devices can be safely implanted in seriously ill heart disease patients in the developing world, a study out Monday suggests.

"These devices did work well. They delivered appropriate shocks and saved lives," said lead researcher Dr. Behzad B. Pavri, of Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia.
The devices, known as implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs), automatically deliver potentially life-saving electrical shocks to the heart in people at high risk of cardiac arrest. But in the developing world, few people have the money to afford the cost - about $5,000 in the U.S. for pacemakers, and four times that for ICDs.

A few studies have already shown that it's possible to reuse pacemakers, devices that use electrical pulses to the heart to keep a normal heartbeat.

for complete article: Recycle, reduce, reuse: Americans’ heart devices reimplanted safely in India

These 7 states really know biotech (and probably have jobs) - From MedCity News

What makes a dominant biotech hub? It comes down to five workforce sectors, according to Battelle: agricultural feedstock and chemicals; drugs and pharmaceuticals; medical devices; research, testing and medical labs; and bioscience-related distribution.

Battelle’s new jobs report released at BIO this week outlined not only the national and state-by-state job growth in all these sectors, but which parts of the country also have notable clusters of specialized jobs. Shake out all their data and only seven states have the magic combination of both a large employment base and a specialized concentration of jobs in at least two of the five sectors. Three states can lay claim to three of the five.

Most of the job data was not surprising. Battelle’s numbers, which analyzed job growth from 2001 to 2010, showed biotech has grown while the total private sector and the other “knowledge economy” areas like aerospace and IT services had declined. From 2007 to 2010, though, every biotech job sector but the research, testing and medical laboratories sector shed jobs.

The future life science economy is a wild card. Will your job be outsourced overseas or to a contract manufacturing company down the street? Will the region you’re in have the workforce to manage your company’s growth? Here’s the list of states that have a big concentration of jobs in multiple sectors, with workforce strength in multiple specializations.

The report offers a breakdown of every state. There are tons of interesting tidbits including the fact that the states that simply added the most jobs last year — no matter the concentration strength — were Arizona, California, Colorado, Massachusetts, Oregon, Utah, Texas and Wisconsin.

See article for the top 7 listing:
http://medcitynews.com/2012/06/these-7-states-really-know-biotech-and-probably-have-jobs/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=these-7-states-really-know-biotech-and-probably-have-jobs

HHS innovator: Grants, challenges are growing healthcare entrepreneurs - from MedCityNews

When you hear “government” and “healthcare,” you probably think Medicare, Medicaid and other government programs directed at the general public.

Wil Yu

Wil Yu, director of innovations at the Department of Health and Human Services in the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT, by contrast, wants to build an entrepreneurial ecosystem in the private sector to solve big healthcare problems.

His tools? Data liberacion and app challenges that are designed to help entrepreneurs think up and build the next innovative solution for problems facing the industry.

In his government job, the former investment banker and equity analyst:

• Leads several innovation grant programs and created “Investing in Innovations;“
• directs the Strategic Health IT Advanced Research Projects program;
• serves as a senior adviser at the CMS Innovation Center and on the HHS Innovation Council;
• manages the DC-to-VC program;
• and co-founded the Federal mHealth Collaborative.

He also has helped with many challenges that range from heart health to hospital-to-home transitions.
Yu talked with MedCity News about gaming and health, access to data, and the DC-to-VC program.

MedCity: Many people are skeptical about government’s role in innovation. How can you convince people that government is on their side?

for the full interview:
http://medcitynews.com/2012/05/hhs-innovator-government-is-supporting-innovative-ecosystem-in-healthcare/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=hhs-innovator-government-is-supporting-innovative-ecosystem-in-healthcare

Advances Coming in Medical Science That Will Have a High Impact

 

There are a series of medical megatrends outlined in my book The Future of Medicine ’ Megatrends in Healthcare that will profoundly affect health care in the coming five to fifteen years and beyond. Some are due to the explosion of basic understandings of cellular and molecular biology. Others are related to advances in engineering and computer science. Here is a very brief overview.

These are the megatrends in medical care that are coming whether there is any change in health policy or not. First, expect that medical care will become much more custom-tailored to your personal needs. Genomics will allow you physician to select the most appropriate medication for you not just the one that on average works for most people. And he or she [more and more she since 50% of medical school graduates are now women] will also be able to select a drug that is less likely to cause a side effect as a result of you body’s reaction to it ’ all from knowing your genomic information. The surgeon will use your image such as a CT scan to program the simulator and practice the correct approach for your personal surgery. A vaccine may be made up specifically for you ’ a designer vaccine ’ to treat your specific cancer.

Second, expect that medicine will finally begin to focus more and more on prevention. . For example, genomics will allow your doctor to tell you at a young age if you personally are at high-risk for, say, heart disease and then prescribe a regimen of life style changes and medications selected specifically for you to reduce the risk. New vaccines will ward off serous infections and even many chronic debilitating diseases like Alzheimer’s.

http://www.medcitynews.com/2012/04/advances-coming-in-medical-science-that-will-have-a-high-impact/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=advances-coming-in-medical-science-that-will-have-a-high-impact

Orphan drug launches reach 10-year high in 2011

Orphan drug launches for rare diseases reached a 10-year high in 2011, underscored by new breakthroughs in personalized medicine, according to a report by IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics in New Jersey.

Orphan drugs carry a higher price tag than other drugs because they are intended for a patient population of no more than 200,000.

Among the 12 orphan drugs launched last year was Pfizer’s (NYSE:PFE) drug critzotinib, branded Xalkori, to treat nonsmall cell lung cancer. The drug targets a specific biomarker — the anaplastic lymphoma kinase fusion gene. The therapy is for 3 percent to 7 percent of patients with tumors that carry a unique mutation and can improve survival by nine months. Roche-owned Genentech drug, sumotropin, a human growth hormone, was launched to alleviate the short stature associated with Turner syndrome, a disorder that affects women in which they lack or have a malfunctioning sex chromosome.

http://www.medcitynews.com/2012/04/orphan-drug-launches-reach-10-year-high-in-2011/?edition=pharmaceuticals