The global medical technology industry’s market size is presently around USD $400 billion and is projected to reach USD $495 billion over the next three years, according to a PwC report. The term “medical technology” covers a wide range of products, from products to drugs and software. Medical technology advancements help to save lives by improving the accuracy of diagnoses, advancing treatments, and improving medical care.
New technological developments and drug therapies continue to boost the excitement within the market. In fact, according to a recent report from Business Insider, the healthcare sector is the only sector in the S&P 500 with double-digit gains this year. With an 11% gain , the healthcare sector is outperforming other sectors such as utilities and consumer discretionary. As we continue to advancements in the industry, here are a few healthcare stocks in focus.
Premier Health Group, Inc. (PHGRF) (PHGI) announced that as a part of its technology platform, it has signed a binding LOI to acquire all the outstanding securities of Cloud Practice Inc., which offers cloud- based medical records software applications whose products include Juno EMR, ClinicAid, and MyHealthAccess. The Juno EMR system, a cloud-based EMR solution, is currently used by 287 clinics, over 3,000 licensed practitioners, 1,500 staff and 2,870,000 registered patients.
Dr. Essam Hamza, CEO ,“Cloud Practice already has a tremendous standalone and growing business serving thousands of clinicians and millions of patients. The collective ecosystem of over 3,000,000 patients creates an opportunity to become a key player in the telehealth space in Canada.”
Premier Health recently signed another binding LOI to acquire a British Columbia based pharmacy and expects the acquisition to close in Q1–19. The company is also continuing to evaluate additional pharmacy acquisitions and/or partnerships. The company provided an update on its expansion into the Cannabis clinic space, that it has been in discussion with ACMPR-Licensed Producers, other licensed medical cannabis companies and government officials to establish a framework as well as actively recruiting additional physicians for existing clinics and a cannabis focused physician.
Premier Health entered the primary care clinic and healthcare technology business via the HealthVue transaction, obtaining access to a group of four Greater Vancouver-based fully integrated medical clinics with a 10-year history, 22 health care professionals and over 100,000 active patients.
TRACON Pharmaceuticals (TCON) is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of novel targeted therapeutics for cancer. On Wednesday, TRACON reported “positive” top-line clinical results from an early-stage study of TRC105 and Opdivo for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer. The combination of TRC105 and Opdivo was well-tolerated without the development of dose limiting toxicity in six patients who were treated as part of escalation, according to the company.
“We initiated this Phase 1 trial based on the potentiation of PD-1 checkpoint inhibition observed with TRC105 in pre-clinical models. We are pleased that TRC105 was well-tolerated with Opdivo, and with the early evidence of activity seen in the study,” said Charles Theuer, M.D. Ph.D., President and CEO of TRACON. “We expect to present data from the expansion cohorts in mid-2019.”
This news followed an announcement earlier that day that TRACON has submitted an Investigational New Drug (IND) application with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the initiation of a Phase 1 clinical study of TJ4309 in patients with advanced solid tumors, expected to begin early next year. TJ4309 is a CD73 antibody from I-Mab’s proprietary discovery pipeline that is being co-developed through an agreement between TRACON and I-Mab.
BioXcel Therapeutics (BTAI) is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company that announced that the FDA has granted “fast track designation” for its investigational drug BXCL501. The drug is a proprietary sublingual film of dexmedetomidine, for the treatment of acute agitation.
BioXcel stated that it is currently conducting an early-stage study placebo-controlled, single dose, dose-escalation study of BXCL501. The study is expected to enroll up to 60 healthy adult volunteers across various dosing groups. The primary endpoints are pharmacokinetics and safety. The company said it expects to report top-line data from the study in H1.
“Acute agitation represents a growing health care problem and major unmet clinical need,” BioXcel lead investigator Dr. Chetan Lathia said in a statement. “The fast track designation for BXCL501 reinforces its potential to address unmet medical needs. This milestone also has the potential to accelerate regulatory review and enable us to bring BXCL501 to market more efficiently.”
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