VaxInnate keeps slowly raising capital for seasonal flu vaccine
VaxInnate, a New Jersey startup, has raised more equity - on top of $53 million in government contracts - to develop a seasonal and pandemic flu vaccine.
Roche’s real-time tests for influenza A & B approved for point-of-care
Testing for the flu just got a lot faster.
FluGen raises $12M Series A for “universal” flu vaccine
Wisconsin startup FluGen is developing a flu vaccine that's meant to protect against mutated forms of the virus. It just raised a $12 million Series A to do so.
New influenza vaccine fights the virus by not targeting it
Vasculotide helps prevent against influenza by targeting fluid leakage in lungs instead of attacking the sometimes deadly virus directly.
Well-capitalized VaxInnate gets another $6M for its bacteria-based flu vaccines
New Jersey’s VaxInnate is developing inoculations to ward off seasonal and pandemic flu, dengue fever and Clostridium difficile. The well-capitalized company has raised a recent round of $6 million, according to a regulatory filing. The company genetically fuses vaccine antigens to flagellin, a protein that forms the flagella of a bacterium that’s known for being highly […]
Visterra bringing influenza immunotherapy into Phase 2 with $30M cash influx
Infectious diseases like dengue fever influenza of the seasonal and pandemic varieties are the top targets for Cambridge biotech Visterra, which has just raised a hefty Series B round – to the tune of $30 million – for its immunotherapies. The company plans to bring its influenza therapy into Phase 2 trial with the new cash […]
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.
How Fujifilm played a role in the fight against Ebola
Fujifilm has made an offer to the World Health Organization to distribute a stockpile of anti-influenza meds that could treat up to 20,000 individuals with Ebola. A new New Yorker article outlines why – how digital imaging behemoth Fujifilm is playing what could be an important role in the treatment of Ebola. Five years ago, it […]
Smart thermometer is the favorite at Cleveland Clinic & StartUp Health’s venture challenge
Mobile health company Kinsa continued its victory lap around the startup competition circuit at the Cleveland Clinic Medical Innovation Summit today, taking home top honors at the summit’s first ever new ventures healthcare challenge. Eleven startups from the StartUp Health Network, which co-presented the challenge with Cleveland Clinic, pitched to a panel of judges that […]
Flu shot as Batman: Healthcare marketing hit or miss?
The new MedImmune vaccination is the big news for this year’s flu season – that and athena health stepping in while the CDC staff is furloughed. This new flu shot is supposed to protect against four strains instead of just one. MedImmune has to have a good sales pitch, in part because the vaccine is […]
Wow of the Week: 17-year-old Google Science Fair champ discovers new leads for anti-flu drugs
Eric Chen isn’t your average 17-year-old. When the high school junior isn’t in school, he’s working with biologists at the University of California, San Diego, using their supercomputers and wet labs to conduct drug discovery research on potential new anti-viral medicines. This week, that work earned Chen the title of Google Science Fair winner. His […]
With the Rise of AI, What IP Disputes in Healthcare Are Likely to Emerge?
Munck Wilson Mandala Partner Greg Howison shared his perspective on some of the legal ramifications around AI, IP, connected devices and the data they generate, in response to emailed questions.
Wow of the Week: A flu vaccination you could give yourself, with no shots involved
What if the jab that comes with getting a flu shot could be replaced by painlessly sticking on a patch containing dozens of microneedles? A group of researchers from Emory University, Georgia Institute of Technology, Georgia State University and a trio of universities in South Korea have been working on a patch that would allow […]
Seattle biotech ups series B again to ID & develop antibodies as infectious disease therapies
Seattle-based biotech Theraclone Sciences Inc. has added another $8 million to its series B as it advances two antibodies targeting viral infections through clinical development and works on identifying more. Existing investors ARCH Venture Partners, Canaan Partners, MPM Capital, Healthcare Ventures, Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Amgen Ventures, Versant Ventures and Zenyaku Kogyo committed $8 million […]
The latest innovation in flu meds: Startup using nanotech raises $6M
It’s been quite a season for innovative responses to infectious diseases so far, ranging from Twitter tools that track outbreaks to the app that informs users which plague they need to be worried about now that the flu epidemic seems to be behind us (acute respiratory illness, apparently), and a helpful website from the Centers […]
If data is all the rage, why is it missing from the mandatory flu shot debate?
Here’s what we think we know about the influenza vaccine: it’s about 60 percent effective, and anyone working with patients should get it. But as more controversy unfolds around the mandatory vaccination policies being put in place by some hospitals, and the job losses that follow, there seems to be some important information missing. Let’s […]
Is Twitter a better predictor of the flu than Google and the CDC? Researcher says, yes
Everyone in the U.S. who hasn’t been living under a rock is aware that we have been hit by a particularly pernicious flu season. And the key to controlling the influenza or any contagion is not only early detection, but also in predicting the trajectory of the disease. Here, social media, especially Twitter, is playing […]