Dorsey client Mayo Clinic and Cambridge, Massachusetts-based nference recently announced the formation of Qrativ. Qrativ will combine nference’s artificial intelligence (AI) knowledge synthesis platform with Mayo Clinic’s medical expertise and clinical data to discover and develop treatments for diseases with unmet medical need. This effort is being boosted by an $8.3 million Series A financing supported by Matrix Capital Management, Matrix Partners and Mayo Clinic. The new venture will work with drug companies to discover whether molecules researched for treatment of one disease can effectively treat other conditions. Qrativ is the latest in a series of complex joint ventures and…
Author: Alexandra Barnes
Soligenix’s self-described “DOM–INNATE” study has initiated patient enrollment. The late-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing products to treat rare diseases where there is an unmet medical need, announced that patient enrollment has been opened for its Phase 3, multinational, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study evaluating SGX942 (dusquetide) as a treatment for severe oral mucositis in patients with head and neck cancer receiving chemoradiation therapy (CRT). Mucositis is the clinical term for damage done to the mucosa by anticancer therapies. It can occur in any mucosal region, but is most commonly associated with the mouth, followed by the small intestine.…
Avant Diagnostics, Inc. (‘Avant’) (OTC: AVDX), an oncology-focused healthcare technology company commercializing the proprietary Theralink proteomic biomarker platform announced positive clinical utility data, the confirmation of the clinical utility of the Theralink Pancreatic Cancer assay in an expanded 60 patient data study in distinguishing patients that will experience a 5-year survival outcome following standard of care treatment regimens, versus those likely to experience significantly worse outcomes. The initial 40 patient study set was presented at The International Symposium on Pancreas Cancer 2016. The Company is evaluating the commercial potential of this assay to assist physicians in making prescribing decisions, as…
In 2016, Chinese companies invested more than $44B in the United States. The amount of investment has been growing steadily since 2000, increasing substantially each coming year. Over the last 16 years, there were more than 110 deals between Chinese investors and U.S. healthcare companies totaling $3.9 billion, 20 of which occurred last year in 2016. There are several factors that can be attributed to the increased amount of investment from China into U.S. companies in the healthcare business. After China’s “go global” policy at the start of the 21st century, many investors responded to the government’s strong promotion of…
ImmunoCellular is a L.A.-based clinical stage company developing immune-based therapies for the treatment of brain and other cancers. ImmunoCellular’s pipeline includes: a Stem-to-T-cell research program, which engineers hematopoietic stem cells to generate cytotoxic T cells; ICT-121, a patient-specific, dendritic cell-based immunotherapy targeting CD133 found in recurrent glioblastoma; ICT-140, a patient-specific, dendritic cell-based immunotherapy targeting ovarian cancer. ImmunoCellular recently suspended further patient randomization in its phase 3 trial of ICT-107 in HLA-A2 patients while it pursues a collaborative arrangement or acquisition of its ICT-107 program. ICT-107 is a dendritic cell-based immunotherapy targeting multiple tumor-associated antigens on glioblastoma stem cells. ImmunoCellular recently…
Sierra Oncology is a clinical stage drug development company advancing targeted DNA Damage Response (DDR) therapeutics for the treatment of patients with cancer. The company’s lead drug candidate, SRA737, is a highly selective, orally bioavailable small molecule inhibitor of Checkpoint kinase 1 (Chk1), a key cell cycle checkpoint and central regulator of the DNA Damage Response (DDR) network. In cancer cells, replication stress induced by oncogenes (e.g., MYC and RAS) combined with loss of function in tumor suppressors (e.g., p53 and ATM) results in persistent DNA damage and genomic instability. Targeted inhibition of the remaining components of the DDR network…
TapImmune Inc, a clinical-stage immuno-oncology company specializing in the development of immunotherapies targeting women’s cancers, announced that it has enrolled 50% (40/80) of the patients in its randomized Phase 2 clinical study of its novel T-cell vaccine candidate TPIV 200 for treating triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). The four-arm study is designed to determine the optimal vaccine dose and regimen to maximize the immune response generated against the vaccine’s molecular target, folate receptor-alpha (FRa). The multi-center Phase 2 study continues to enroll women with stage I(T1c)-III TNBC who have completed initial surgery and radiation/chemotherapy, and who have not yet had a…
ProLung’s mission is to improve outcomes for potential lung cancer patients through early predictive technologies, provide cost savings to patients, payers, and providers, and to provide a fair return on investment to shareholders and other stakeholders. ProLung is committed to making a positive and significant impact on the healthcare community and to being socially responsible in all its endeavors. The ProLung Test uses precision proprietary volume-averaging bioconductance technology to measure the difference in conductivity between malignant and benign lung tissue. The data is analyzed to produce a personalized and predictive score indicating the likelihood of malignancy in the lungs. There…