TOP STORIES
Content will be light today as our staff take time off to spend the holiday with family and friends. We wish our readers a Merry Christmas! We’ll return next week with more stories taking stock of 2015 and previewing the coming year.
Raise your hand if you saw this coming. Theranos made a list of worst unicorns of the year. After years of positive press and a $9 billion valuation for its blood testing technology, an investigative series by The Wall Street Journal and an FDA investigation, led the company to stop using some of its own tests. — VentureBeat
LIFE SCIENCES
Medical device manufacturer BionX Medical Technologies, which develops robotic prosthetic limbs for amputees, has raised an additional $17 million. — Xconomy
Proteostasis Therapeutics Inc. has filed to go public, hoping to raise $86 million and use the NASDAQ ticker symbol PTI as it develops a cystic fibrosis treatment. – Boston Business Journal
Nohla Therapeutics raised $21 million and added Lawrence Gozlan, chief investment officer and founder of Scientia Capital, to its board. The company develops cellular therapies for haematological disorders and immunological diseases. – Business Wire
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
Poseida Therapeutics released some of the details of a Series A financing round posted earlier this month in a Form D filing on the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s website. It is using the funding to advance its gene therapies for orphan liver diseases and CAR-T therapies for cancer. — SEC
PAYERS-PROVIDERS
Could patients be taught to hook up antibiotics intravenously? That seems to be the conclusion of a new study by researchers at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. — Drugs.com
A new report shows that in 2012, one-quarter of nurses’ first job was in the community, as opposed to a hospital. That compares with 13 percent in 2005. The report projects a net loss of experienced nurses to hospitals over time. — Forbes
Legacy Health and PacificSource Health Plans could be the latest in many payer consolidations this year. — Portland Business Journal
An analysis of 124 studies in Pediatrics suggests prolonged skin to skin contact between mothers and children with low birth weight, along with exclusive breast-feeding and quick discharge from the hospital was associated with a reduced risk of things such as sepsis and hypothermia as well as reduced readmission. — The New York Times, Pediatrics
TECHNOLOGY
Want to catch up on your health IT vendor blog posts? Here’s a collection of highlights from the year. — EMR and EHR
A LITTLE BIT EXTRA
As you open your presents this morning, spare a thought for the occupational hazards facing Santa. There’s the night vision challenges of driving with only a red nose to guide him, a lack of seatbelts and airbags on his sleigh. The tradition of leaving Santa Claus “a cup of brandy” or whiskey could be undermining his sleigh driving. Not to mention the obesity and chronic conditions he may be hiding. — Healthcare Economist
Photo: Flickr user Kevin Dooley
