TOP STORIES
A Harvard cardiologist has moved over to Google’s research arm Google X to lead the Baseline study announced last year to do the biggest deep dive of what it means to be healthy down to molecules and cells.
Meet Elpidera, a new Moderna spinoff that will target rare genetic diseases using Moderna’s messenger RNA technology.
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.
LIFE SCIENCE
Merck KGaA’s evofosfamide, which treats pancreatic cancer, has gotten fast track status from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Mission Bay Capital has raised $25 million to invest in biotech.
Gene editing company Precision BioSciences Inc. raised $25.6 million in a series A round led by venBio.
A Personalized Approach to Medication Nonadherence
At the Abarca Forward conference earlier this year, George Van Antwerp, managing director at Deloitte, discussed how social determinants of health and a personalized member experience can improve medication adherence and health outcomes.
Autonomic Technologies, Inc., developer and manufacturer of Pulsante, a microstimulator to treat severe headaches, announced the closing of a series D round of financing for $38M.
Well, that’s depressing: “More than three-quarters of the pancreatic cancer patients enrolled in NewLink Genetics phase III study have died but the company’s experimental therapeutic vaccine is still unable to demonstrate a survival benefit significant enough to declare victory.”
Immune sequencing company, Adaptive Biotechnologies Corp., has decided to move into therapeutic discoveries following massive recent funding.
PAYERS PROVIDERS
In a Q&A, Dr. Farzad Mostashari shared about his startup Aledade’s ACO initiatives, the next generation’s model and expansion around the company.
The company accomplished this with its own team of experts, including executive vice president Mat Kendall, who helped establish a network of regional health IT extension centers while serving at the ONC; CTO Edwin Miller, who has held leadership positions at athenahealth, digitChart and CareCloud; and projects coordinator Anna Marcus, who helped research physician-led ACOs at the Brookings Institution.
The World Health Organization has officially declared Liberia Ebola free. But the fallout continues. Will the WHO change as a result of the Ebola crisis?
TECH
Chinese online shopping giant Alibaba has launched a service to deliver non-prescription drugs and other healthcare goods in three hours.
The U.S Food and Drug Administration launched a database to allow consumers, healthcare providers and product manufacturers to access information tracked on medical devices.
POLITICS
Is a global biomedical research and development fund even possible? There’s talk of one ahead of the G7 Summit.
A group of Democrats are pressuring House leadership to advance a bill that repeals Obamacare’s medical device tax before Memorial Day.
The Obama administration has made it clear that insurers must cover a wide range of contraceptive methods at no cost to consumers.
The guidance from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) makes clear that insurers are obligated under the Affordable Care Act to cover at least one version of each of the 18 federally approved birth control methods.
A LITTLE EXTRA
This year, Shanghai Tower, the world’s second-tallest building measuring 2,073 feet, will open and add even more futuristic drama to the city’s skyline. It looks pretty incredible, which explains why it’s been featured in both James Bond and Mission Impossible films.
Shanghai Tower is a building within a building. The interior — where offices and a hotel will be located — is a cylinder wrapped in a skin of glass and steel, which creates a series of atriums that run up the sides of the structure.
The Morning Read provides a 24-hour wrap up of everything else healthcare’s innovators need to know about the business of medicine (and beyond). The author of The Read published it but all full-time MedCity News journalists contribute to its content.
[Photo from Flickr user RObert Scoble]
