Baltimore-based LifeBridge Health is partnering with Healthworx, the innovation and investment arm of CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, to launch a new incubator for startup companies developing healthcare technologies and innovations.
The incubator, dubbed 1501 Health, will provide companies participating in the program up to $100,000 in investment as well as access to mentorship and support from payer and provider experts, according to a Jan. 26 news release emailed to Becker’s Hospital Review.
Wilmington’s Amalgam Rx, a digital medicine and patient support company, has acquired Baltimore-based Avhana Health.
With the acquisition, which closed this month, Avhana’s seven employees will join Amalgam’s 100-member team, which already has a presence in Baltimore. The acquisition is Amalgam Rx’s first. Terms were not disclosed.
Image: (Image via linkedin.com/company/amalgamrx)
A new “blank check” company created through a partnership between Baltimore venture capital firm Catalio Capital Management and New York investment firm HealthCor Management launched a $180 million IPO Wednesday.
Manufacturing powerhouse Emergent BioSolutions unveiled its seventh COVID-19 CDMO tie-up Monday, this time to help crank out Humanigen’s late-stage antibody hopeful lenzilumab.
Emergent will hustle along fill-finish work on lenzilumab at its Camden plant in Baltimore, boosting supplies ahead of a possible emergency nod early this year. Humanigen’s monoclonal antibody, designed to treat and prevent the immune hyper-response known as cytokine storm, is currently in a phase 3 trial in hospitalized patients, and the company says it expects to file for an emergency use authorization in 2021’s first quarter.
Image: Emergent recently completed a new filling line at its Camden plant in Baltimore, pictured above. (Emergent BioSolutions)
Newswise — Healthworx, the innovation and investment arm of CareFirst BlueCross BlueShieldis partnering with LifeBridge Health to launch 1501 Health, an incubator for healthcare startups. 1501 Health will provide investment and resources to help early-stage companies, located regionally or nationally, develop their healthcare solutions.
Companies participating in the program will receive up to $100,000 in investment and have access to unique mentorship and support from payer and provider experts, along with networking and educational events with other startups, investors and stakeholders.
Image: Healthworx 1501 Health in Baltimore, MD
The move solidifies the company’s local presence about four months after it secured a temporary occupancy permit in September.
Image: Ben Wu is CEO of the Montgomery County Economic Development Corp. EMAN MOHAMMED
One of the questions I get asked the most is when I think the world will get back to normal. I understand why. We all want to return to the way things were before COVID-19. But there’s one area where I hope we never go back: our complacency about pandemics.
The unfortunate reality is that COVID-19 might not be the last pandemic. We don’t know when the next one will strike, or whether it will be a flu, a coronavirus, or some new disease we’ve never seen before. But what we do know is that we can’t afford to be caught flat-footed again. The threat of the next pandemic will always be hanging over our heads—unless the world takes steps to prevent it.
Image: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/its-too-soon-start-thinking-next-pandemic-bill-gates/
Novavax electrified investors last night by announcing that its COVID-19 vaccine NVX-CoV2373 showed efficacy of 89.3% in the company’s first analysis of data from a Phase III trial in the U.K., where a variant strain (B.1.1.7) accounted for about half of all positive cases.
However, NVX-CoV2373 achieved only 60% efficacy in a Phase IIb trial in South Africa, where that country’s escape variant of the virus (B.1.351, also known as 20H/501Y.V2) was seen in 90% of cases, Novavax said.
“NVX-CoV2373 is the first vaccine to demonstrate not only high clinical efficacy against COVID-19 but also significant clinical efficacy against both the rapidly emerging U.K. and South Africa variants,” Stanley C. Erck, Novavax’s president and CEO, said in a statement.
Patient engagement platform GetWellNetwork announced it has acquired patient-messaging company Docent Health for an undisclosed sum.
As part of the deal, GetWellNetwork will be able to offer Docent Health’s tool as a combined offering with its other services. The messaging service uses artificial intelligence to message patients about their care. Additionally, its platform is able to collect patient data and, in turn, triage patients and find them the right place of care to seek.
Image: https://www.mobihealthnews.com
The Johnson & Johnson one-shot coronavirus vaccine is expected to be a game-changer in fighting COVID-19 — and it will be made in Baltimore.
