President Obama’s settled the score on this one: It’s precision medicine. Not personalized medicine. The life sciences community has been throwing around both terms, but there’s actually a keen distinction between the two. Personalized medicine’s origins coincide with the wrapping up of the Human Genome Project, and denote a sort of tailored-t0-you panacea – it’s all about the individual’s […]
Word on the street is that President Obama’s precision medicine initiative will involve building an enormous database of genomic information – the first logical step, many say, in bringing tailored therapy to the masses. It’ll compile the information for a million Americans, perhaps, Science reports: It would not be created from scratch by enrolling new volunteers, however, but […]
The mention was a lot like the president’s entire State of the Union address: short on specifics but heavy on hope. President Obama announced in his Tuesday State of the Union speech that he would launch a “Precision Medicine Initiative.” I want the country that eliminated polio and mapped the human genome to lead a […]
Ezekiel Emanuel didn’t talk death-at-75 at this week’s J.P. Morgan conference – he talked money. Namely, the costs associated with health care – what counts as appropriate expenditure, and what’s egregious. Personalized medicine was on his hit list, as he rattled off some of the chinks in the U.S. health care cost structure. The reason, he […]
John Stuelpnagel – one of Illumina‘s cofounders – has never had his genome sequenced. “I didn’t feel the need,” Stuelpnagel said. It’s not because of the cost, nor the fear he’s got some genetic disorder. It’s not even because he believes it’s an unnecessary move for a healthy man: “It’s just that sequencing isn’t good enough today […]
A web-based analytical platform to tease apart genomic data just raised some cash: Utah-based genome analysis company Tute Genomics held a $2.3 million Series A1 round. Investors include Eurovestech, Peak Ventures and several angel investors, Tute Genomics said in a statement. The company’s cloud-base analytics platform is meant to be used by labs, clinicians and researchers […]
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.
Blueprint Medicines recently announced a $50 million Series C round, meant to advance its two lead candidates through clinical trials in 2015 and fund the company’s proprietary kinase discovery platform and pipeline. The round was led by Partner Fund Management; the company, launched by Third Rock Ventures, to this point has raised an impressive $115 […]
Pittsburgh-based personalized medicine company Precision Therapeutics has changed its name to Helomics Corp. – and has brought in an impressive $60 million financing round and hired a new C-suite and board, to boot. The company’s strategy will be to become highly acquisitive in the personalized medicine space, it said in a statement. The cancer diagnostics company […]
Personalized medicine player Theranostics is in the midst of a modest fund raise – it’s raising $1 million in equity, according to a regulatory filing. Not to be confused with biotech media darling Theranos – the Bay Area startup that means to do a wide range of testing form a single blood drop – Theranostics still […]
The Cleveland Clinic has teamed up with IBM’s cognitive computing system, Watson, to help oncologists sift through the massive amounts of patient genetic data and identify targets for treatment. The collaboration will help “accelerate the race to personalized medicine and cut through the Big Data challenge of genomics so patients can be treated based on […]
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.
MedCity News has partnered with BioCrossroads to provide coverage focused on Indiana’s next generation of growth and innovation in life sciences. Only 5.8% of the student population is enrolled in the Pharmacy, Nursing and Health Sciences programs at Purdue University, but healthcare startups make up half of the university’s new Startup Class of 2014. Twelve […]
A big data cancer platform that helps docs with reimbursement issues and the business end of personalized medicine has received a new cash infusion. New Jersey-based startup COTA, shortened from Cancer Outcomes Tracking & Analysis, closed a $3.7 million Series A tranche from Horizon Healthcare Services for its platform that delivers clinical data and cost analysis for cancer […]
Given billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong’s general save-the-world M.O., it’s always worth tracking what his companies are up to. NantBioScience, an offshoot of his Los Angeles startup NantWorks, has partnered up with University of Colorado to develop protein-targeted anti-cancer drugs and diagnostics. The licensing deal is exclusive, and focuses on the Ral protein – which plays a role across activated signaling pathways in pancreatic, lung, colon and other […]
Personalized medicine player MolecularHealth is adding an interesting reimbursement twist to its cancer diagnostics offerings: It figures out insurance options not only for the tests it offers, but also for the ensuing treatment options that are recommended by its tests. “To avoid disappointment and confusion for a patient, we think it’s best for the patient and physician to have a meaningful […]
A new Frost & Sullivan report calls attention to a new chapter in printing technology making its way into healthcare called 4D printing. The biggest difference from 3D printing is 4D involves technologies that alter the properties and behaviors of objects such as external stimuli such as changes in temperature. They can also, to a […]
