Over the past few decades, most of the innovation surrounding the healthcare industry has been centered on companies developing new diagnostics, drugs, therapies, or devices. Moving forward, innovation may shift its effort to other areas such as prevention, more personalized care, and more efficient technology-enabled care models. Frost & Sullivan Healthcare and Life Sciences experts are predicting large disruptions and transformations to the industry as it continues to leave behind outdated business models.
“Advances in areas ranging from cancer immunotherapy products to blood testing, as well as the convergence of cutting-edge technology such as artificial intelligence and blockchain will help shape the healthcare industry into a much-anticipated, value-based care paradigm” commented Sandeep Sinha, VP & Head, Healthcare and Life Sciences, Frost & Sullivan.
Recently, healthcare stocks have become a large focus of conversation among investors as the number of headlines regarding the sector have been soaring. As healthcare companies work around the clock to develop novel and effective solutions to improve the quality of care, there has been constant excitement surrounding the sector and healthcare stocks.
Premier Health Group, Inc. (PHGRF) (PHGI) announced that it is moving forward with a binding Letter of Intent to acquire two cash flow positive Metro Vancouver-based pharmacies with a combined annual revenue of over $6 million for the fiscal year ended May 2018. The company expects the acquisition to close in or about Q2 2019.
“We are very excited about this opportunity to acquire two well-run and profitable pharmacies. As part of our patient centric model, fill and fulfillment is a major component of our telemedicine app. We are also pleased to have the pharmacies’ key management team, with over 20 years’ experience managing pharmacies, come on board to continue running the operations. We look forward to working together to improve fulfillment for our rapidly growing patient base,” said Dr. Essam Hamza, CEO. “In addition, with one of the pharmacies occupying a space of over 6000 square feet, we have a potential opportunity for a brand-new medical clinic expansion.”
Premier Health recently entered into a strategic partnership with China’s 360 Health, a healthcare subsidiary of 360 Security Technology. The two companies will implement an infrastructure whereby Premier will be providing second opinion services by connecting 360 Health’s patients in China with doctors in Canada both remotely and in person. Premier Health entered the primary care clinic and healthcare technology business via the HealthVue transaction and recently signed a definitive agreement to acquire all of the outstanding securities of Cloud Practice Inc, a national cloud-based medical records software application company whose products are used by over 3,000 licensed practitioners and nearly 3 million registered patients.
Biocept, Inc. (BIOC) announced the availability of research-use-only kits, intended to enable molecular laboratories to utilize Biocept’s Target Selector™ circulating tumor DNA assays to perform liquid biopsy testing. Biocept’s Target Selector™ platform is patent protected in the US and in 10 other major international territories. The first available kit is for the high-sensitivity detection of EGFR oncogene mutations, top evaluated biomarkers for lung cancer and additional test kits for other oncogene mutations are intended for launch in the future.
“The launch of our liquid biopsy kit strategy has been a priority for Biocept, and we are excited to now have the ability to leverage the value of our patents as we enable laboratories around the world to utilize our proprietary Target Selector technologies,” said Michael Nall, President and CEO. “Key objectives for this new business line are to create a leading global brand of research-use-only products, including kits and blood collection tubes, in the liquid biopsy market and to generate additional revenues in addition to those generated by our U.S.-based clinical laboratory business.”
This followed the recent Software License and Laboratory Data Supply Agreement with Prognos, Inc., an innovator in predicting disease by applying artificial intelligence (AI) to clinical laboratory diagnostics. The agreement entails that Biocept will supply de-identified data from its liquid biopsy testing to Prognos, which will leverage its AI capabilities to help its pharmaceutical clients.
Trevena, Inc. (TRVN) announced the receipt of the official Type A meeting minutes from the U.S. FDA regarding the Complete Response Letter (CRL) received for the oliceridine New Drug Application. The FDA has agreed that the Trevena’s current safety database will support labeling at a maximum daily dose of 27 mg and that the company can conduct a study in healthy volunteers to collect the requested QT interval data and that the study should include placebo- and positive-control arms.
“We are encouraged by the productive discussion with FDA, which we believe has provided a path to resubmit the oliceridine NDA,” said Carrie L. Bourdow, President and CEO. “We remain committed to our mission of ensuring access to safe and effective treatment options for hospital patients who require an IV opioid to manage their moderate to severe acute pain.”
Trevena intends to submit a detailed protocol and analysis plan to FDA shortly. Following receiving FDA feedback, the company anticipates starting the study in the first half of this year. The Company is not required to provide any additional efficacy data to resubmit the oliceridine NDA.
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