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A researcher is developing a nasal spray using custom proteins that could protect against COVID-19. Baker's lab plans to start early human testing of the nasal spray later this year to make sure it's safe and test its efficacy. Using AI, his ultimate goal is to create a nasal spray that's full of proteins that can block many different viruses. Then the proteins could be manufactured and placed in a nasal spray. Baker said that designed proteins are more stable than naturally occurring proteins, so they won't degrade before they make it to one's nose.
Digital-health startups saw a big downturn in 2022, as funding decreased by 57% compared to 2021. Telehealth funding in particular tumbled by $10 billion. Sign up for our newsletter to get the latest healthcare news and analysis — delivered weekly to your inbox. Funding for digital-health startups slumped to $25.9 billion in 2022, a 57% decrease from 2021's record, an end-of-year report from CB Insights found. Digital-health funding surged amid the coronavirus pandemic, fueled by easy access to funds and investor optimism for how technology could reshape healthcare.
Afeyan is the CEO and founder of Flagship Pioneering, the venture firm behind Moderna. Flagship has in its portfolio multiple companies using AI in areas like drug discovery and testing. The Flagship method for company building starts with a vague "what if" question, and if the idea survives testing, it's unveiled to the public, Afeyan told Insider in 2021. Afeyan isn't alone in predicting that generative AI is gearing up to play a bigger role in healthcare. Morgan Cheatham, a vice president at Bessemer Venture Partners, told Insider he predicted generative AI would result in more than $1 trillion in value for the healthcare industry by 2040.
Atai Life Sciences said that its ketamine therapy failed to help patients in a trial. Patients who received ketamine didn't fare better than those who got the placebo, Atai said in a press release. Ketamine, a surgical anesthetic, is currently being tested as a possible treatment option for patients with severe depression that has not responded to other kinds of therapy. According to Insider's tracker, there are four other mid-stage trials of ketamine underway for conditions such as treatment-resistant depression and alcohol-use disorder. In the Perception Neuroscience trial, 102 patients with treatment-resistant depression were given 60mg of PCN-101, 30mg of the therapy, or a placebo group.
The FDA authorized retail pharmacies to become certified to carry mifepristone in a ruling Tuesday. Retailers may not sell the abortion pill due to administrative hurdles and backlash, experts say. But don't expect to be able to find the pill at your local Walmart or CVS any time soon. The FDA implemented the regulatory change Tuesday night to allow retail pharmacies to dispense mifepristone to people with a prescription. Insider contacted seven major retail pharmacies to ask whether they plan to sell mifepristone.
The Brazilian soccer legend Pelé died of colon cancer Thursday at 82. Colon cancer is the third most common cancer, affecting almost 2 million people each year. Colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer, according to the World Cancer Research Fund International. Pelé isn't the only celebrity to have died of colon cancer in recent years — the Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman died of the disease in 2020 at the age of 43. Here are the cutting-edge phase-three clinical trials for colon cancer, in order of how recently they began.
The current strain may be descended from the 2010 strain that UN troops likely brought. The current outbreak was first reported on October 2, according to the WHO, after three years of no reported cholera cases. Before going to Haiti, there had been a cholera outbreak in Kathmandu, where the troops trained before deployment. Scientists don't yet know why this new cholera outbreak is occurringScientists aren't yet sure how cholera has reemerged in Haiti after three years of no reported cases. However, the authors say this third option is unlikely, partially because other countries in the region have not reported recent cholera cases.
The New York Times reports NYU Langone gave "VIPs" like donors and trustees preferential treatment. NYU Langone broadly denied the claims in a statement to Insider. Langone told the Times that he never asked for or was offered special treatment. Ambulance workers who brought these patients to NYU Langone were sometimes pressured to take them elsewhere, the report says. New York Senator Chuck Schumer once went into Room 20 with his wife, who was experiencing shortness of breath, the Times reported.
HHS said today that states can now access the national stockpile of Tamiflu, a flu antiviral. There's a shortage of the medicine, thanks to a rough start to this flu season. This comes as flu season continues to sweep across the US, with thousands of hospitalizations. States were given access to their own stockpiles last week, according to the statement. Rui Vieira/PA Images via Getty ImagesThis flu season is intense—and it started early.
Madrigal Pharmaceuticals reported positive results in its phase 3 trial for a drug to treat NASH. NASH is a serious liver condition that does not have an FDA-approved treatment. Many people don't even know they have it, which is why some people call it a "silent" disease. In a trial of more than 950 patients, 26% of patients taking 80mg and 30% of patients taking 100mg of the drug showed that NASH activity like swelling had been reduced. Pharma hasn't found a way to treat NASH yetThe pharma industry has been watching NASH for a while.
Funding raised: $27 millionNumber of employees: 20Why it's set to take off next year: Provider burnout is getting worse, and it's exacerbating healthcare's staffing crisis. Nof said he expected Abridge's technology to be in demand next year as hospitals worked to reduce the administrative burdens on doctors. "They've reached a tipping point where people are desperate to gain efficiencies in their workday with all the physician burnout," he said. Abridge's technology takes the audio from doctor-patient interactions and automatically turns it into documentation for billing purposes or a summary of the visit for the patient. That means doctors are relieved of the "hours of pajama time in the evening that they previously spent doing clinical documentation," Cheatham said.
Strep A is surging in the UK and has killed at least 19 kids, the UK Health Security Agency said. A vaccine would be better, but research groups have hit roadblocks during its development. Researchers have been trying to make a strep-A vaccine for decadesIf it's caught in time, strep A can be treated with antibiotics. There is no vaccine commercially available, but several research groups are working on developing one. A GSK spokesperson confirmed to Insider that it's also in the early stages of developing a strep-A vaccine but that it had not started human testing.
A recent study reviewed seven companies that prescribe testosterone therapy online. These companies say that they make treatment more accessible for people who already suspect they have low testosterone. A new study shows that DTC companies do not all follow medical guidelinesThe new study encourages patients looking to get testosterone therapy online to educate themselves before taking the leap. The study found that six out of seven of the companies tested offered testosterone therapy to the shopper. The study was not meant to evaluate companies prescribing testosterone for gender affirming hormone therapy, which is a different process than testosterone replacement therapy.
A Lyme vaccine was pulled from the market 20 years agoThere's already been one US Food and Drug Administration-approved vaccine for Lyme disease. GSK — then called SmithKline Beecham — made a Lyme vaccine that was approved by the FDA in 1998. If the phase 3 study results are positive, the companies are aiming to get FDA approval for the vaccine in 2025. Lyme disease is a growing problemLyme disease has become much more of a concern since 2002. In 2022, a study estimated that 15% of the global population had contracted Lyme disease at some point in their lifetimes.
An early trial for an experimental HIV vaccine candidate has shown promising results. 97% of recipients in a phase 1 study showed immune system activity in response to the vaccine. Researchers have been trying to create an HIV vaccine for nearly 40 yearsHIV is notoriously difficult to vaccinate against. By evolving and changing quickly, it can avoid the immune system by making itself harder to recognize. "That's sort of a whole new way of thinking about how to make a vaccine," Schief said.
In June, Charm said it raised $50 million, valuing the firm at $100 million to $150 million. Charm has raised $50 million from top investorsDemis Hassabis, the CEO and a cofounder of DeepMind Technologies. In the spring, Aithani raised the $37 million million round that was announced in June, with investors like Khosla Ventures and General Catalyst joining OrbiMed and F-Prime Capital. The raise values Charm at between $100 million and $150 million, Aithani said, and brings the company's total funding to $50 million. This article was corrected on August 19 to show that Charm has raised two rounds of funding totaling $50 million.
Prenuvo, a company offering preventive MRI scans, raised a $70 million Series A in October. Some say healthy people probably don't need whole-body scans, which can lead to risky procedures. On October 18, the company, based in Vancouver, British Columbia, said it had raised a $70 million Series A to provide whole-body MRI scans to consumers. The website says the scans are performed by MRI technologists and analyzed by radiologists trained to read Prenuvo scans. PrenuvoWhole-body MRI scans aren't accessible for everyoneSafavi said whole-body MRI scans have been available for more than two decades for people curious about what might be in their bodies undetected.
The current economic downturn is making it difficult for biotech companies to raise money. Some investors only want to spend their money on companies created in-house. But by being creative and relentless founders can still raise money, according to an investor. In the face of these conditions, Alucozai said that founder-CEOs have to be creative and aggressive to raise funds. "They're still happening but they're a lot tougher than they were a couple years ago," Alucozai said.
On Thursday, the billionaire investor Vinod Khosla spoke about reducing costs in healthcare. Vinod Khosla thinks the best way to disrupt healthcare is to change how it's paid for at the primary-care level. The billionaire investor and founder of Khosla Ventures said he thought that in the next decade, primary care should cost as little as $1 to $5 per visit. "If you change the definition of primary care from what is today's primary care, or urgent care mostly, to a much-broader definition where your hypertension is managed in primary care, where your diabetes is managed in primary care, you will see that take over and affect the core total cost of care downstream," he said. For instance, a company like Oak Street Health can operate primary care at a loss because it makes money if its patients stay healthy.
Insider found 16 pioneers in the world of biotech venture capital who are shaping the industry. But new investors are joining the ranks of biotech venture capitalists every day, and they're bringing new ideas with them. Insider set out to identify the rising stars writing biotech's next chapter and ended up with a wide-ranging group of 16 investors shaping the industry. According to these people, the 16 names on this list represent some of the brightest minds in the VC world and are using their intellect to shake things up. Here are the 16 rising stars of biotech investing, according to investors, academics, and entrepreneurs.
Folx, a telehealth service for the LGBTQ+ community, just raised $30 million in a Series B round. Folx will use the money to expand telehealth services, especially in behavioral health. Folx Health, a company offering telehealth services to the LGBTQ+ community, announced today that it has raised a $30 million series B round to offer and expand new services to clients, including behavioral health and mental health services. Folx's CEO, Liana Douillet Guzmán, said that Folx has raised $59 million in total, but she did not disclose the company's current valuation. Here is the 17-slide presentation Folx Health used to raise its $30 million Series B round.
VC funding in telehealth companies has fallen by $4.5 billion in 2022, according to a Cowen report. Last year marked a record in telehealth investment as the pandemic accelerated transitions to digital over in-person care. Investment grew from $2.2 billion in 2020 to $6.5 billion in 2021, according to the report. 2021 was a record year for investment in the digital health space as a whole. The analysts named 13 telehealth companies that they believe are significant private market disruptors in the telehealth space.
A group of Oscar Health alums aims to create tech to tame the chaos of healthcare-provider data. When Anshul Rathi joined Oscar Health in 2017, the health-insurance upstart didn't have a system to verify the credentials of medical providers covered by the insurer's health plans. General Catalyst led the startup's $14.5 million Series A in September, bringing CertifyOS's total funding to $20 million. Existing investors Upfront Ventures, Max Ventures, and Arkitekt Ventures also contributed to the Series A. The startup removed information about its financial growth and private client details from the pitch deck before sharing it with Insider.
Kole, a game developer in Colorado, gets his testosterone therapy through Folx Health, a startup that conducts doctor visits online and sends him his medication through the mail. He told Insider the privacy of using a company like Folx made getting testosterone safer. Plume was founded by Jerrica Kirkley and Matthew Wetschler in 2019 to provide gender-affirming hormone therapy over telehealth. Certain policy developments could let Folx and Plume keep prescribing testosterone, though, and two senators have asked the Biden administration to loosen restrictions on the treatment. The Folx executive, the company's chief clinical officer, Kate Steinle, said the startup expected to be allowed to continue prescribing testosterone under this rule change.
Analysts at UBS said Eli Lilly is their top Big Pharma stock pick. They said Lilly's obesity and diabetes drug Mounjaro will likely top Wall Street's sales estimates. The experimental Alzheimer's drug lecanemab could help boost the stock too. Lilly's stock gained 3.2% to $305.80 on Thursday morning. They also touted the potential of Lilly's experimental Alzheimer's drug donanemab, saying it has a 60% chance of success.
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