News Archive

Bethesda’s Aledade Inc. has done it again.

The fast-growing health tech startup, which helps physician practices cut costs and build accountable care organizations, has raked in a whopping $64 million in Series C financing, after kicking of 2019 with $56 million in then-new investments — and all in a moment of general investor restraint.

The funding will enable Aledade to continue expanding its national network of doctor-led ACOs, the company said Monday. It will also support the addition of more value-based contracts with Medicare, Medicaid and commercial health plans. It comes as Aledade sees annual revenue grow 60% and projects it will surpass $150 million within the next year, it said in an email to the WBJ.

Image: Farzad Mostashari is the CEO and founder of Aledade. JOANNE S. LAWTON

“Nobody knew there’d be a pandemic” … “Nobody has ever seen anything like this before” … “Nobody would have ever thought a thing like this could have happened.”

Those were President Trump’s words in March about the COVID-19 pandemic. Trump’s repeated protestations were questioned by, among others, Trump himself, who told the White House press corps on March 17 that, “I felt it was a pandemic long before it was called a pandemic.”

RIVERDALE, Md., April 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — Medcura, Inc., a commercial-stage medical device company, announced today that it has moved into a new purpose-built facility in Riverdale, Maryland that will support the manufacture and commercialization of its growing product line.  

Medcura chose the Discovery District, a growing center for technology and innovation, where high-tech companies can build businesses that develop, manufacture and commercialize disruptive new products. The Company worked with Terrapin Development and St. John Properties to design and deliver a facility that can house product development, manufacturing and leadership functions that will support commercialization of consumer, clinical, surgical and military applications of its proprietary platform. The Company intends to manufacture core cGMP compliant hemostatic and wound treatment materials at a scale necessary for commercial launch and in support of the clinical development of implantable devices.

Image: PRNewsfoto/Medcura, Inc. 

QIAGEN N.V. QGEN announces the receipt of the FDA’s approval for its therascreen BRAF V600E RGQ polymerase chain reaction (“PCR”) Kit (therascreen BRAF V600E) as a companion diagnostic to the BRAF inhibitor, BRAFTOVI (encorafenib). The company also announced the subsequent launch of the kit. The FDA approved the use of the PCR kit as a companion diagnostic in combination with cetuximab to treat adult patients, who have metastatic colorectal cancer (“CRC”), with a BRAF V600E mutation after prior therapy. Notably, CRC patients having the mutation will be identified, using an FDA-approved test.

Virginia Governor Ralph Northam on Monday issued an order to residents stay at home until June 10, part of expanded efforts to curtail the coronavirus pandemic that continues to spread across the country.

“I want to be clear: Do not go out unless you need to go out. This is very different than wanting to go out,” the Democratic governor said in announcing the order.

Northam noted that “some of our beaches and other recreational areas were literally packed” over the weekend, and warned that, “everyone who is gathering in a crowd is putting themselves and others at risk.”

ABBOTT PARK, Ill., April 15, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — Abbott (NYSE: ABT) announced today the launch of its third COVID-19 test, a lab-based serology blood test for the detection of the antibody, IgG, that identifies if a person has had the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). Antibody testing is an important next step to tell if someone has been previously infected. It will provide more understanding of the virus, including how long antibodies stay in the body and if they provide immunity. This type of knowledge could help support the development of treatments and vaccines.

This antibody test adds to Abbott’s existing COVID-19 tests that are already being used, including its m2000™ molecular laboratory system and its ID NOW™ molecular point-of-care device.

GERMANTOWN, Md., April 20, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — Precigen, Inc. (Nasdaq: PGEN), a biopharmaceutical company specializing in the development of innovative gene and cell therapies to improve the lives of patients, today announced that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has cleared the Investigational New Drug (IND) application to initiate a Phase I/II trial for Precigen’s PRGN-2009, a first-in-class, off-the-shelf (OTS) investigational immunotherapy utilizing the AdenoVerse™ platform designed to activate the immune system to recognize and target HPV+ solid tumors. HPV+ cancers represent a significant health burden in indications such as head and neck, cervical, vaginal and anal cancer.  

It was a year ago this month that Johnson & Johnson Innovation first unveiled plans to launch a healthcare innovation facility in Washington, D.C., in collaboration with BARDA—also known as the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, a component of the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

BARDA’s mission: the innovation, advanced research and development, acquisition and manufacturing of medical countermeasures—vaccines, drugs, therapeutics, diagnostic tools and non-pharmaceutical products—needed to protect us from chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) health security threats, as well as pandemic influenza and emerging infectious diseases.

Image: Photo courtesy of Children’s National Hospital

The push for convalescent plasma and hyperimmune globulin immunotherapies to use against COVID-19 continues at the federal level, with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) touting collaboration with non-governmental entities to see it done.

GlaxoSmithKline CEO Emma Walmsley on Tuesday told CNBC’s Jim Cramer that her company’s newly announced partnership with industry peer Sanofi is an “unprecedented collaboration” between competitors.

The European pharmaceutical giants are combining their resources to develop a Covid-19 vaccine and aim to produce a batch within the next 20 months.

Image: https://www.cnbc.com