Singapore-based startup Mesh Bio has raised $3.5 million in a funding round led by East Ventures, with participation from Elev8, Seed Capitals, and other shareholders. The company plans to use the funds to scale the deployment of its digital twin offering across Hong Kong and Southeast Asia, with a focus on addressing the prevalent and…
Alex Lugovskoy, CEO of Diagonal Therapeutics, aims to develop antibodies that activate targets, rather than just inhibit cellular functions. Using computational and experimental techniques, the startup focuses on binding combinations to yield desired effects. Diagonal’s platform, developed over two years, includes a lead program for a rare bleeding disorder without FDA-approved therapies. Their technology, which…
The MedCity Moves Podcast discusses recent executive appointments, promotions, exits, and layoffs in the healthcare industry. Katie Adams explores new leaders at Geisinger and Cedars-Sinai, as well as recent job cuts at Johnson & Johnson and Highmark Health. The podcast also features an interview with Brian Anderson, the new CEO of the Coalition for Health…
The study found that the influenza vaccine for the 2022-2023 season was moderately effective in reducing influenza-A-associated emergency and urgent care encounters and hospitalizations in the US. The research involved adults with acute respiratory illness and used data from the VISION Network. It found that overall vaccine effectiveness was 44.0% against influenza-A-associated emergency and urgent…
The FDA has expanded approval for the cancer drug Enhertu to include treatment of adults with HER2-expressing solid tumors that cannot be surgically removed or have advanced after prior treatment. Enhertu is an antibody drug conjugate that delivers targeted therapy to tumors. The approval was based on Phase 2 studies showing a high overall response…
The study found that contamination of health care environments near patients with C. auris occurs quickly, often within 4 hours of disinfection. Most C. auris carriers were found to be co-colonized with at least one bacterial multidrug-resistant organism. This highlights the need for broadly effective interventions to reduce colonization burden and environmental contamination against multiple…
Conservative Christian lawyers aim to restrict access to abortion pills nationwide, challenging the FDA’s regulation of mifepristone, the drug used in 63% of U.S. abortions. The case could lead to a de facto nationwide abortion ban. Anti-abortion groups have previously petitioned to limit mifepristone’s availability, citing safety concerns that have since been discredited. If successful,…
In the spring of 2020, as Covid-19 took hold around the world, Centers of Disease Control and Prevention director Mandy Cohen was the head of North Carolina’s Department of Health and Human Services. Among the challenges she and her team had to face was the antiquated state of data pervasive in public health and medicine….
The Texas Medicaid program has agreed to cover costs for doctors to assess 4-month-old infertility patient Sufyan Pashai in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Sufyan’s older brother has metachromatic leukodystrophy (MLD), a neurodegenerative disorder caused by a gene mutation, and Sufyan is a candidate for treatment to prevent the disease from manifesting. This gene therapy called Libmeldy is…
More than 1,500 Irish consultants, representing 35% of the consultant workforce, have signed the new public-only Sláintecare contract. This includes 306 new consultants and 1,242 who switched from previous contracts. The top three specialties choosing the new contract are general medicine, anaesthetics, and surgery. This contract means consultants will only treat public patients in public…
