[Source: Research & Innovation] Athens (Greece) is the winner of this year’s European Capital of Innovation Awards, funded by the EU research and innovation programme Horizon 2020. The runner-up cities – Aarhus (Denmark), Hamburg (Germany), Leuven (Belgium), Toulouse (France), and Umeå (Sweden) – received €100,000 each. The prize money will be used to scale up local innovation activities and collaborate with other cities.
Medical device maker ResMed has agreed to acquire Minnesota-based MatrixCare, which makes software for long-term care providers, for $750 million.
San Diego’s ResMed (NYSE: ticker[[RMD]]) announced its intention to buy the privately held tech company on Monday. The purchase price is 25 times MatrixCare’s pro forma 2018 earnings of about $30 million (without taking into account interest, taxes, depreciation or amortization) on anticipated net revenue of about $122 million.
ResMed, which brought in net income of $315.6 million on revenues of $2.3 billion in its most recent fiscal year, is best known for making continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machines that help… Read more »
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[Source: http://ec.europa.eu/health/ageing/innovation/index_en.htm] Identifier: H2020-INNOSUP-2018-2020Pillar: Industrial LeadershipPlanned Opening Date: Deadline: Thu, 1 Aug 2019 17:00:00 (Brussels local time)Modification Date: Tue, 6 Nov 2018Latest information: The submission session is now available for: INNOSUP-01-2018-2020(IA)
A panel of experts on Friday voted in favor of bringing what could be the first-ever drug approved specifically for postpartum depression to market. But should it get the expected green light from the FDA next month, how widely will the treatment, which requires a continuous, 60-hour intravenous infusion that a professional will have to monitor, be used?
By a 17 to 1 vote, with one abstention, the panel agreed that the benefits of the drug outweigh its risks for treating postpartum depression, or PPD-as long as patients are monitored in a healthcare facility and the treatment is administered under a… Read more »
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In a world of continual innovation in biopharmaceuticals, how do we ensure patients have access to the medicines that work to meet their individual needs?
On Day 1 of BIO’s Patient and Health Advocacy Summit, a group of health care stakeholders joined Merck’s Dr. Julie Gerberding for a discussion about the importance of understanding policies that may stand between patients, and the treatments they need. Panelists included:
The group touched on topics ranging from the acceleration of high patient cost-sharing and barriers to patient assistance programs, including co-pay accumulators, to the adoption of utilization management tools like step-therapy, and the drive toward using cost-effectiveness analyses in coverage decisions.
Early in the discussion, Carl Schmid was asked about co-pay accumulator programs and the challenges they pose to patients and consumers. “These policies are usually buried in the plan documents, so people don’t even know that they are being subject to this practice,” he told the crowd.
As he explained, insurance plans and pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) have started to implement these policies, which prevent funds provided by financial assistance programs offered by drug manufacturers, from applying to a patient’s out of pocket maximum or deductible. This can leave patients with steep costs when the value of patient assistance is exhausted. “We’re very concerned that it could impact adherence and lead to people not picking up their drugs,” he concluded.
Next, Donna Cryer shared her concerns about step therapy and explained why this policy – often referred to as “fail first” – could be dangerous for patients. “Step therapy requires that you try a drug that is something different from what you and your doctor have agreed upon,” Cryer explained while providing detail about this practice, which is used as a tool to drive a patient towards a lower cost treatment. “It is well documented in literature that patients who are subjected to step therapy or fail first utilization management tactics experience delays in care … and that is not appreciated,” she added.
To close out the session, Dr. Gerberding initiated a discussion on the Trump Administration’s American Patients First Blueprint. While the group agreed that the proposal is far from perfect, Dr. Alan Balch noted that we must “identify the pieces that we think are beneficial and will help patients, and then extrapolate … them across the board.” Balch continued, “it’s not enough to only give patients access to information about drug prices … it’s their surgery costs, diagnostic tests, hospital costs” that need to be shared as well. “There must be a common denominator, so everyone is playing under the same set of rules.”
Anna Hyde with the Arthritis Foundation echoed these comments, adding that “while we talk a lot about patient impact and patient centeredness, there is a shift in thinking that hasn’t happened yet. Not enough people who develop and implement policy ask themselves the questions of ‘What is the impact to the patient? Is this going to be a net benefit to the patient?’” On how to make that shift happen, Hyde concluded “every piece of the ecosystem” has to think about these questions, “not just the patient community, but the provider community, the pharmaceutical community, [and] the payer community … so that it becomes a more standard way of thinking.”
To watch the full panel discussion, click here. To learn about other sessions that took place at BIO’s Patient and Health Advocacy Summit click here.
DNA sequencing giant Illumina is shoring up its position in genetic research through a cash deal to acquire Pacific Biosciences for approximately $1.2 billion.
Under the agreement, Illumina (NASDAQ: ILMN) will pay $8 per Pacific Biosciences (NASDAQ: PACB) share, a 79 percent premium to the Wednesday closing stock price of the Menlo Park, CA, company.The company’s shares haven’t traded above $8 since November 2016. PacBio went public eight years ago at $16 per share.
Though both Illumina and PacBio offer gene sequencing systems, the companies say the deal brings together complementary technologies. Illumina’s sequencing technologies analyze short… Read more »
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An FDA advisory panel Thursday panned a new experimental drug for depression from Alkermes, meaning the agency is likely to reject the treatment by early next year.
By a 21 to 2 vote, the 23 experts decided that the data accrued by Alkermes (NASDAQ: ALKS) don’t support approval of the drug, currently known as ALKS-5461. They also voted 20 to 3 that Alkermes hasn’t provided substantial evidence that the drug is effective.
Though the results of these meetings aren’t binding, the FDA looks to its advisory panels for guidance and its approval decisions are often in line with the panel… Read more »
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A recently announced agreement between the New Jersey Economic Development Authority and the Israel Innovation Authority is a fitting testament to the theme for the upcoming BIO 2019 International Convention: It Starts with One. In the intensely innovative biotechnology space, one meeting; one interaction; one study, one partnership, one discovery, or one presentation can change the trajectory of progress.
On October 11, 2018, the New Jersey Economic Development Authority and the Israel Innovation Authority (IIA) signed a Memorandum of Understanding that was initiated from conversations held at the 2018 BIO International Convention in Boston.
The relationship began when Choose New Jersey CEO Jose Lozano attended a presentation given at the June Convention by long-term conference attendee, IIA, ROI reports. Impressed by the presentation, Lozano and his team connected with IIA staff before the end of the conference and the rest was history.
The October memorandum was signed days before New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy set out on a nine-day global economy mission with an important stop in Israel. The partnership encourages collaboration between New Jersey corporations and Israeli businesses- specifically it aims to strengthen research and development of the innovation economy, including the biotechnology and the life sciences industries.
In a press release on the memorandum, Governor Murphy noted,
“The Garden State and Israel both have economies deeply rooted in innovation as well as brilliant scientists, researchers, and academic minds doing ground-breaking work across a broad spectrum of high-growth sectors. The New Jersey-Israel relationship already generates more than $1 billion in annual shared economic activity and we hope that, as a result of this MOU, that number will double, if not triple, in the years ahead.”
To read more about the partnership between New Jersey & Israel, visit:
This is only one of the many cross-border collaborations that have stemmed from the educational, networking, and partnering opportunities at the BIO International Convention.
As the world’s largest biotechnology event, the BIO International Convention attracts 16,000+ global biotechnology and pharma influencers for one week of intense networking to discover new opportunities and promising partnerships. Event attendees can connect with global counterparts in the industry to foster new breakthroughs in innovation that help us heal, fuel, and feed the world.
To engage in similar types of networking and collaborative partnerships, attend the 2019 BIO International Convention hosted in Philadelphia, PA. Click here to learn more.
Gilead Sciences is paying tiny Tango Therapeutics $50 million to tap into the startup’s cancer drug program, adding to what has been so far an expensive, but not yet lucrative, foray into cancer immunotherapy for Gilead.
Cambridge, MA-based Tango is still in the early phases of looking for cancer drugs by exploiting a well-known tumor vulnerability, known as synthetic lethality, in a very modern way: gene editing. Gilead could potentially combine Tango’s drugs with an established kind of immunotherapy called checkpoint inhibitors, said Tango CEO and president Barbara Weber.
It is unclear if Foster City, CA-based Gilead (NASDAQ: GILD) plans… Read more »
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[Source: Research & Innovation] The main objective of the conference is to demonstrate the importance of Social Sciences & Humanities (SSH) research for competitiveness of Europe and well-being of its citizens, their contribution in solving main societal challenges and the added value of multidisciplinary research.
The long term objective seeks to ensure that SSH receive the proper recognition in academia and society. Too often governments, European policymakers and research community refer approvingly to the undoubted contributions made by natural sciences, engineering and technology to wealth generation, economic prosperity, knowledge transfer, innovation, and the development of new businesses, products & services, while failing to acknowledge the equally important contributions made by SSH.
