News Archive

Regression models, Monte Carlo simulations, and other methods for predicting what’s around the corner have been in use for decades. It’s only recently, though, that advances in information technology have made it possible for predictive tools to access and manipulate big data, and to do so continuously — accelerating the generation of insights, and opening up opportunities to anticipate issues with unprecedented precision. Think of the colleges that are increasingly able to identify students at risk of dropping out and intervene before they do. Or lenders’ enhanced abilities to gauge credit risk. Energy, agriculture, insurance, retail, human resources — no industry is unaffected. But nowhere is the potential of this new era of opportunity more apparent and exciting than it is in health care.

Roche plans to spend around $3bn updating and expanding its Basal site, home to the Swiss company’s headquarters, over the next 10 years.

The company is set to build a new R&D centre for 1,900 employees and an office building for 1,700 employees, and will also upgrade its existing infrastructure.

Sucampo Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Sucampo) (Nasdaq:SCMP), a global biopharmaceutical company, and Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited (Takeda) today announced that on October 17, 2014, they entered into a global license, development, commercialization and supply agreement for AMITIZA® (lubiprostone). Through this agreement, Takeda expanded its exclusive rights beyond the United States (U.S.) and Canada to further develop and commercialize AMITIZA in all global markets, except Japan and the People’s Republic of China.

“Takeda is committed to being a patient and customer-centric organization, making quality health products available to the patients who need them. Through this agreement, AMITIZA can now be made available to patients worldwide,” said Shinji Honda, Senior Managing Director and Corporate Strategy Officer. “Takeda forms partnerships to advance science and to provide innovative treatment options for patients, and this global agreement is an excellent example. This global collaboration leverages the expertise we have established through our gastroenterology portfolio of products.”

It’s not just the FDA that is making life difficult for medical device companies. Executives are having to follow sales opportunities as medical care shifts out of hospitals into homes and physician offices. They are having to revamp their entire business model to survive in the new world of the ACA.

A.T. Kearney has identified the five forces that are forcing the device industry to evolve in this new report: Medical Devices: Equipped for the Future? In addition to spelling out the threats, the analysts have a guide for how to start building a new business model.

Stapling up skin post-surgery is pretty much the norm to quickly seal up wounds, but it runs a risk of infection and injury from the extra damage to already sensitive skin.

Bay Area startup ZipLine Medical has developed a non-invasive but suture-like alternative that it’s positioning as a quicker, simpler and more desirable way to close small surgical wounds. To boot, clinical trials have shown the method decreases both infection likelihood as well as scarring. The company just closed a $5.7 million extension to its Series C financing round, led by a new venture firm in Shanghai called China Materialia that wants to expand the technology there.

Colleen Worthington has been working at this university for more than 24 years. It wasn’t until this year, however, that she received her first promotion.

“No matter how much better I got or more I contributed, it was the same title from 1990 until last [semester],” Worthington said.

Tuberculosis is both tough to treat and medically cumbersome to manage. Under directly observed therapy, a medical professional has to watch a patient take his or her medication for at least six months. A Baltimore health IT startup may help lighten that load.

The Baltimore City Health Department is launching a pilot with emocha Mobile Health’s app miDOT, according to a release from the Highlandtown firm.

Baltimore biopharmaceutical company Profectus BioSciences Inc. has received a three-year, $8.5 million grant from the U.S. Army for work on an Ebola vaccine.

Profectus will share the grant with the Galveston National Laboratory at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. The grant is Profectus’ second in recent days. The company also announced a $5.8 million grant from the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) to conduct safety studies of the company’s VesiculoVax, a potential Ebola vaccine.

Earlier this year, the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) launched the HHS IDEA Lab. With it, we unveiled a consolidated structure for the innovation activities at the Department of Health and Human Services, flashy new branding and a website. But when we launched, we weren’t totally clear on what the main message for the HHS IDEA Lab was, and over the past 6 months we heard the question – what is the HHS IDEA Lab all about? So we have looked at ourselves, focused on what your needs are to solve problems, become an entrepreneur, or just learn new skills, and have clearly defined what the HHS IDEA Lab is.