StemCell Therapy

Cat Wise:

Brittani Powell is now-cancer free, thanks to the clinical trial. But she was lucky. According to the Food and Drug Administration, only about 30 percent of clinical trial participants for cancer drugs come from minority groups. The rest are white.

In an era of precision medicine, when drugs are being developed for and tailored to specific segments of the population, diversity is essential, because some diseases and drugs impact racial groups in different ways.

George Ocampo has been part of the Lazarex push to reverse those numbers. He couldn't work during five grueling rounds of chemo for pancreatic cancer. A clinical trial for a new treatment, two hours from home, didn't seem like an option.

Lazarex has footed the bill for his trips to the University of California, San Francisco, the gas, tolls, parking, and hotel stays, while he participated in the trial. They also pay for airfare for those traveling longer distances.

Those seemingly small interventions have helped Ocampo and other patients access cutting-edge care they otherwise wouldn't have received.

Read the original here:
Why diversity in clinical trials is matter of life or death - PBS NewsHour

For senior Hasaan Hayat, a Lyman Briggs student with dual majors in neuroscience and human biology, the opportunity to work in a cutting-edge laboratory as an undergraduate researcher both confirmed his interests in technology and medicine and helped illuminate his career path.

For about a year, Hayat has been contributing to research in the lab of Ping Wang, an affiliate with MSUs Precision Health Program, or PHP. Precision medicine, a component of PHP, is a fairly recent field of biomedicine. This field develops personalized, patient-specific therapies and treatments, often incorporating tools like molecular imaging, nanoparticle technology and artificial intelligence to produce better outcomes for patients.

Through research like that of Wang, tools and technologies can be developed to detect disease sooner and treat it earlier, achieving better outcomes and reducing healthcare costs. PHP at MSU aims to transform the approach to healthcare from reactive to proactive by focusing on disease prediction, prevention and early detection.

Hayat has been interested in technology and human biology for as long as he can remember. After he joined Wangs lab, he became especially intrigued by the use of artificial intelligence, or AI, in the field of precision medicine.

As a child, I only dreamed of working on such technology myself due to its complexity and mass potential, but I also feared it, thanks to dystopian films such asTerminatorandiRobotwhere the sentient machine is always portrayed as the bad guy, he said. However, I find that AI can be a crucial, beneficial tool for analysis and monitoring of patients in a more modern field of medicine, specifically in oncology, radiology and stem-cell transplants.

Researching in Wangs lab has provided Hayat a unique platform to investigate the intersection of technology and biology. One specific study involved the application of deep learning in non-invasive imaging for monitoring tumor response to chemotherapy.

With help from Wang and Moore, Hayat put together an abstract of his work titled, Molecular imaging and analysis of uMUC1 expression levels in response to chemotherapy in an orthotopic murine model of ovarian cancer, and submitted it to the World Molecular Imaging Congress 2019, or WMIC 2019, in Montreal, Canada.

The WMIC 2019 program committee invited Hayat to present this research as an oral presentation, which is a high honor for the attendees. Hayats paper was one of the highest-rated abstracts at the conference and he won the Student Travel Award.

Hayat was grateful and energized by the experience of presenting at an international research conference.

The congress was phenomenal. I was able to hear about some amazing research and innovations in the field of medicine and molecular imaging/biology, he said. Networking with knowledgeable individuals from top institutions all over the world was a highlight of the event, and I am thankful to PHP and MSU for this opportunity.

Hayat was originally drawn to MSU for its many research opportunities, and specifically to Lyman Briggs College, because of its solid foundations in science.

I admire Lyman Briggs for its creative and innovative approach to STEM fields, and its focus on preparing students for success in graduate school, he said. The faculty at Lyman Briggs are very supportive and ensure that students have a clear understanding of core scientific concepts.

As for the future, his work with the Precision Health Program is inspiring him to go to medical school.

I aim to pursue an M.D.-Ph.D. after I graduate, a decision that has been heavily reinforced by the research I am doing at the Precision Health Program, and my mentor and PI, Dr. Wang, who himself is an M.D.-Ph.D. I salute the cutting-edge work that is performed here, he said. In the future, it is a dream and vision of mine to bring novel, innovative therapies and technologies such as AI and nanomedicine to the clinic in order to provide tools for physicians to use and to improve patient outcomes.

Read more:
Briggs undergrad researcher wins award at international conference - MSUToday

Household messes are the number one reason pet owners have considered giving their four-legged pal away, according to new research.

They may well be one of the family, but what happens when our little furry companions are incredibly mischievous? A poll of 2,000 cat and dog owners revealed 42 percent have thought about giving away their pet as a result of their messy antics.

These beloved animals are getting into the trash and tearing up their owners furniture. Seven in 10 have had their furry friends destroy something in their home.

In fact, 56 percent of those studied revealed theyve come home to a destroyed item of clothing or one of their pets toys torn to shreds while a further 52 percent have been welcomed home to find a totally destroyed couch.

The study, conducted by OnePoll in conjunction with Fuzzy Pet Health, examined the experiences of dog and cat owners and uncovered that 44 percent have come home to their pet tearing up the toilet paper in the bathroom.

But thats not all: Nearly half (48 percent) have had their four-legged friends get into the garbage and leave a massive mess for them to clean up, or had their pets get ahold of paper and eat it adding to the mess.

Dog and cat owners really never know what they are coming home to after leaving their furry friends home alone. Forty-three percent have had their pet have an accident in the house or chew through blankets and comforters upon their return home.

Some respondents, however, had other reasons for considering giving their pet away. Two in five say allergies became an issue for someone in the household while a further 39 percent say they didnt know the animal would need so much attention.

That being said, there are a number of things cat and dog owners have done to avoid giving their pet away even for the 35 percent who think their furry friend suffers from behavioral issues.

Fifty-six percent of those who ever considered giving their pet away became more patient with their pet, while a further 52 percent put in the effort to get a trainer for their four-legged companion.

But thats not all dog and cat owners did to avoid the heartbreak of giving up their pet. Over half (51 percent) of those who have ever considered giving their pet away or up for adoption used supplements to help their pet feel better overall.

Stress in pets is much more prevalent than we know, said Dr. Lisa Lippman, Fuzzy Pet Healths New York lead veterinarian. We have created Fuzzy Health Packs a monthly personalized medicine plan tailored to your pets needs which includes options for pets with anxiety.

To help their pets while away from home, another 43 percent have invested money in a pet-sitter/walker to ensure their pet was properly cared for and to avoid coming home to a disaster.

It turns out, 56 percent of the cat and dog owners studied say they think their pet knows they are guilty when they do something wrong in the house.

Thats probably why a staggering 64 percent worry their pet will get up to no good when they leave them home alone.

It is no wonder, then, that 61 percent of the dog and cat owners surveyed consider their pet to be mischievous.

Other key contributing factors to anxiety and stress in pets can be boredom, needing physical and/or mental stimulation and lack of training, continued Dr. Lippman. Owners expect pets to just listen when they want them to, but through training, clear lines of communication can be opened which ultimately will strengthen the human-animal bond.

With the average dog and cat owner having to deal with over $260 worth of house damage caused by their pet, it should come as no surprise that stress is part of a pet owners life.

In fact, three in 10 of those surveyed say they experience more stress since getting their furry companion.

Seventy-six percent of the dog and cat owners studied say they feel stressed when returning home because of their pets past destruction of items in the home.

With this stress comes concern about the decision to have a pet. Unfortunately, 36 percent have gone through the heartbreaking consideration of giving up their current pet.

Top five mischievous pet behaviors

Top five most common things pets destroy

Top 10 reasons pet owners considered giving pet away

Top five reasons pets behave poorly

See more here:
Why some Americans choose to give away their pets - New York Post

In the presence of Genevieve Fioraso, former Minister of Higher Education and Research, Patrick Bourdet, founder and former CEO of Orano Med and the participation of Marc Penaud, General Manager of Toulouse University Hospital, EVEON gathered recently all its partners to celebrate a decade of growth and innovation at the service of practitioners, caregivers and patients.

EVEON, which originated in Grenobles INP engineering school and CEA-Leti, designs, develops and manufactures smart medical devices for the automation of the preparation and delivery of therapeutic treatments. With teams specialized in microfluidics, mechanics, electronics, optics, software, plastics processing, the company offers to its customers and partners a strong technological and scientific synergy.

Its expertise has just been recognized again this month by Forbes magazine (French article of October 7, 2019) which ranks EVEON as the 3rd most inventive French company in the medical technologies category.

EVEON aims to become a key player in automatic, secure and connected medical devices for preparation and delivery of drugs. Improving patients' quality of life, increasing treatment compliance, facilitating the marketing and adherence of complex treatments, reducing the loss of active substances, allowing data recording and transmission, are at the heart of its challenges to respond to a strong trend for personalized medicine and the development of targeted treatments.

Increasing numbers of therapeutic drugs are being developed as biological medicines in lyophilised form, to be reconstituted immediately before injection. Thanks to its unique technological platform, Intuity, EVEON facilitates the handling, preparation (lyo, dilution, liquid-liquid, etc.) and administration (injection, spray, nebulisation, placing drops,...) of drugs as close as possible to the patient.EVEON is involved in the entire development cycle of devices, working on drugs still in clinical trials or already on the market, from the design stage, systems engineering, software and wireless communication development, qualification and assembly, through to market launch and regulatory authorisation.

These solutions meet the particular specifications of its customers, pharmaceutical laboratories, hospital centers and medical device manufacturers, seeking innovative, intuitive and connected devices in line with the needs of patients and practitioners.

EVEON announced last spring the delivery of the first functional prototypes based on its Intuity Ject device. Developed in partnership with a pharmaceutical laboratory, Intuity Ject offers a unique alternative for the preparation and simple, precise injection of lyophilised biological drugs from a bottle or cartridge. The devices designed by EVEON can be adapted to all standard pharmaceutical industry containers and in particular allow the self-administration of a drug contained in a vial. It is important to point out that these two key devices, Intuity Mix for the automatic preparation of drugs, and Intuity Ject, the injection device, have each won prizes at Pharmapack event, awarded by a jury of pharmaceutical laboratories, in 2016 and 2017 respectively.

Based on its technological platform, EVEON also develops automatons that can be used by hospitals specialized in nuclear medicine, such as the advanced platform used by the Nancy University Hospital to set up a new radiopharmaceutical treatment unit. EVEON has several projects involving the handling of radioisotopes.

EVEON is also expected, as in 2018, to record a growth of more than 50% in its turnover in 2019.

With a number of co-development and exclusive medical device manufacturing agreements, EVEON will be entering an industrialization phase in 2020. A fundraising campaign is under way to enable it to strengthen its developments and acquire the necessary resources.

Press contact :Charlotte Reverand | cre@eveon.eu | +33 476 414 833 | @EVEON_SAS

See more here:
EVEON celebrates its 10th anniversary and is ranked by Forbes as the 3rd most inventive French company in the medical technologies category -...

Sao Paulo Oct 31, 2019 (Thomson StreetEvents) -- Edited Transcript of Fleury SA earnings conference call or presentation Friday, October 25, 2019 at 2:00:00pm GMT

Fleury S.A. - CEO & Member of Board of Executive Directors

Fleury S.A. - Chief Financial, IR and Legal Officer & Member of Board of Executive Directors

* Frederico P. Mendes

UBS Investment Bank, Research Division - Head of LatAm Research & Latin America Consumer Analyst

Good morning, and thank you for holding. At this point, we would like to welcome you to the Fleury Group referring to the results of third quarter '19. We have with us today Mr. Carlos Marinelli, the CEO; Mr. Fernando Leo, the CFO, IRO and Legal Officer. We would like to inform you that this event is being recorded. (Operator Instructions) This event is also being broadcast simultaneously through webcast and can be accessed at the address http://www.fleury.com.br/ri, where the respective presentation can be found. You can watch the slides at your own convenience. The replay of the event will be available soon after closing. (Operator Instructions)

Before proceeding, we would like to clarify that forward-looking statements made during the conference call referring to the business outlook, projection, operation and financial goals, are based on the beliefs and premises of the management as well as on information currently available to the Fleury Group. These forward-looking statements are no guarantees of performance as they involve risks, uncertainties and premises and, therefore, refer to events that may or may not occur. Investors and analysts should understand that general conditions, sector conditions and other operating factors could affect the future results of the Fleury Group and lead to results that differ materially from such statements.

We would now like to give the floor to Mr. Carlos Marinelli, who will begin the presentation. You may proceed, sir.

Carlos Alberto Iwata Marinelli, Fleury S.A. - CEO & Member of Board of Executive Directors [2]

Good morning, and I would like to start out by thanking all of you for your presence at our conference results for the third quarter '19. We continue to enhance our brand portfolio. We have observed an organic growth of our service units this quarter, and we have reached the highest level in the last 4 quarters, presenting a growth of 8.7%. This result reinforces our belief in the assertive strategy medically and in terms of care, allied to a culture of efficiency and excellent management.

It is important to highlight that this growth took place despite the timid resumption of the economy. It is true that the recent figures of evolution and the generation of formal employment leave us quite optimistic, showing there is still a trend that have been accumulated since 2012.

In the evolution of our business platform and health, we have not come to a standstill. We are building, testing and implementing technologies and services to guarantee our move forward toward more integrated solution, where the diagnostic sector is a key part of care, treatment and personalized and precision medicine. The foundations necessary to guarantee a robust service platform continue to be a priority of investment for an environment to activate data, intelligent service and agile workflows.

We now go on to the presentation on Slide #3, where we show you the main financial highlights of the third quarter. I would like to underscore that for purposes of comparison, these figures do not present the IFRS 16 effect. Gross revenue had a growth of 10.8%, totaling BRL 818 million. We highlight that this increase, among others, was impacted by an acceleration in the growth of the Fleury brand, with an expansion of 6.7% in the quarter. This is the third consecutive quarter in which we have an enhancement in the brand growth.

Cancellations represented 1.4% of gross revenue and remained stable vis--vis the same period in the previous year. The EBITDA reached BRL 196 million, with a growth of 8.2%. EBITDA margin reached 26%.

Net income attained BRL 96 million, presenting a growth of 4.9%. Operating cash flow totaled BRL 213 million, with an expansion of 22.6%. Return on invested capital without goodwill reached 38%.

We now go on to Slide #4, where we show you the operational highlights for the quarter. Upon the close of the third quarter '19, the Net Promoter Score of our brands reached 77.7%, stable vis--vis the previous year and maintaining that high level of differentiation for which our services are recognized and preferred.

In October, we celebrated a contract for the acquisition of the Diagmax Group in Recife that will be under assessment by the anti-trust agency. Before conclusion, the Diagmax Group acts mainly in diagnoses through images through 6 service units in the metropolitan region of Recife, State of Pernambuco. This acquisition will allow the Fleury Group to expand its presence strategically in the region, increasing its popularity to 17 service units and strengthening its exam portfolio, expanding our share relevantly in terms of diagnosis per image. This acquisition is aligned with our strategy of increasing our presence in markets with an economic growth that is above average, with a great potential of carrying out strategic partnership to guarantee care coordination and a full-service portfolio.

I would also like to highlight that this quarter, we began the consolidation of results of 31 service units of the Lafe brand recently acquired in Rio de Janeiro. As part of the integration, in August, we began to process the exams of all the service units at our own technical area in Rio de Janeiro, significantly enhancing the quality of this process in the Lafe brand and guaranteeing a significant evolution of results in this operation.

At the beginning of November, we will conclude the integration of all of the back-office and front office in terms of operation. We understand that the integration of systems and processes is very important for our business and it enables us to attain high-quality and efficiency levels.

With this integration, 100% of our operations will be on a sole system, presenting the same accuracy of image diagnosis at all regions and we will also have real-time access to all the information produced at the service unit. Even more importantly, we will guarantee the integration of information of the Lafe client to our data lake and an integral connection with our digital strategy for intelligence in terms of our data.

For the strategic pillar of personalized and precision medicine, we have taken perhaps the most important step in terms of the supply of services. Previously, the consultations were carried out only in the city of So Paulo. Presently, we are offering this in the cities of Porto Alegre and Salvador.

Genetic counseling is one more element of our health platform with a view to better understand the clinical position of our patient and the risk of developing hereditary diseases and the potential of transmitting these genetic conditions to future generations. All of this within a continuous care continuum with our team of geneticists, offering consultancy, pre and post exam to physicians, patients and partners. The creation of a genetic database and its use is one of the solutions, the genomic solutions of the Fleury Group and a strategic part to leverage our health platform in a future scenario where precision and personalized medicine will not only bring benefits to patients but also more cost-effective clinical outcomes.

Also connected to our platform, through Santcorp, we inaugurated the first of a series of shared sites for primary care. This solution allies convenience, geographic distribution and high satisfaction of clients already present at the a+ units in So Paulo, benefiting the user who is seeking a solution for health without the high cost of complex structure.

This structure has 3 exclusive rooms that are totally dedicated to triage, clinical care and medication for the Santcorp clients. This model places our customer at the center of care, delivering high efficiency for low-complexity care situations that are more frequent day after day. All of this integrated care that is continued and coordinated is always based on the analysis of timely data and the history of patients, and brings into reality that great potential to change the relationship model between patient and the value change of health.

Finally, I would like to mention the awards that were received by the company throughout the third quarter, showing the strength of the company in the execution of excellency. We won the prize, the best in the stock market organized by InfoMoney, in partnership with Ibmec and Economatica in the health category. We were also acknowledged by the award Empresas Mais of the O Estado de S. Paulo journal and we have achieved a second place in the category of corporate governance for publicly listed companies and the second place in the health sector. Besides this, we were in the first position in the best place to work at Infojobs.

I would now like to give the floor to Fernando, who will continue on with the presentation of results. I am at your disposal for questions at the end.

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Fernando Augusto Rodrigues Leo, Fleury S.A. - Chief Financial, IR and Legal Officer & Member of Board of Executive Directors [3]

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Thank you, Carlos, and a good day, to all of you. We continue on with the presentation on Slide #5, where we show you the performance of gross revenue in a consolidated way. The gross revenue in the quarter increased 10.8%, attaining BRL 818 million. The service units had an increase of 11.7%, with an increase in share of 83% to 85% of the gross revenue for the group. B2B operations grew 5.9% in the quarter, representing 15% of the consolidated revenue. In the 9 months, the amount of growth was 8.8%, with an expansion of 9.1% in the service units and 7.2% in the B2B operations.

In Slide #6, we see in greater detail the growth of the brand portfolio. The graph to the left shows you the total graph of 11.7% in Patient Service Center, 8.7% in organic growth. The Fleury brand expanded 6.7%, presenting for the third consecutive quarter an improvement in its growth. This performance reflects the mix of internal actions, among which, a strengthening of the medical relationship and an improvement in the conversion of setting up exams. Besides this, we have observed a stabilization in the number of beneficiaries with access to the premium market.

Another important impact in the brand performance was a better mix of exams carried out, along with an expressive increase of revenues with genomic exam. The Rio de Janeiro brands increased 21.1%, 8.2% of this increase was organic. The organic performance presented reflects the entrance of new plans as well as the expansion of offer for diagnosis through images. And the Rio de Janeiro brands this quarter, we consolidated the Lafe brand into our results. With the closing of the acquisition that took place in May of this year, we consolidated 4 months of their results.

In the a+ brands So Paulo, the expansion was 19.9% of revenues, arising mostly from growth concentrated in the units inaugurated between 2017 and 2018. That is still in the initial stage of maturity. The regional brands that takes into account operations in the south, north, east and federal district had a growth of 4.4%. An important part of this increase is due to the brand's IRN in Natal and the a+ in Recife that had a 2-digit growth in the revenues. In the graph to the right, we show you the performance of our brand portfolio for the 9 months.

In Slide #7, we highlight the cancellations and net revenues. In the graph to the left, we observed the cancellation indicator showing that we have maintained a high level of efficiency, reaching 1.4% for the quarter and for the 9 months of the year.

To the right of the slide, we see a growth of 10.6% of net revenue in the quarter, totaling BRL 755.7 million, and 8.7% increase for the 9 months of the year.

In the next slide, we will present the main financial indicators. And I would like to highlight that in January of 2019, we adopted the IFRS 16 leasing with a goal of having better comparability amongst periods. We will show the indicators in the next slide without the IFRS 16 effect. Now if you need further details on the impacts of IFRS 16, please look at our financial statements or the earnings release.

In Slide #8, to the left, we highlight the evolution of costs. In the quarter, we had an increase of 12.4%, representing a loss vis--vis constant net revenues of 130 basis points. The cost with direct material and exam intermediation grew 23.8% with a loss in terms of net revenue of 120 basis points. This effect in this line is related to the mix of exams carried out in the quarter with a reduction in the share of the automation section that has a higher margin and the increase of share of specialized sections and hospitals. The specialized section has a main field, genomic exams. With personnel medical services and occupation presented an improvement in efficiency, mitigating the effects that I have just mentioned.

Medical Services and occupation once again has that improvement in efficiencies. To the right of the slide, we present our operational expenses. This quarter, we obtained, an increase of 7.2%, with a gain vis--vis the expenses and net revenue of 34 basis points. What can also be observed in this slide is the evolution for the 9 months of the year in terms of costs and expenses.

In Slide #9, in the graph to the left, we observed that EBITDA attained BRL 196.5 million in the quarter, with a growth of 8.2%. The EBITDA margin reached 26%, a retraction of 58 basis points vis-a-vis the third quarter '18.

As explained in the previous slide, the pressure on the EBITDA margin arises from the cost of services rendered, partially mitigated by the gain in efficiency and operating expenses. Additionally, the inclusion of the Lafe brand in the results of the quarter has also contributed for -- to the pressure observed in the EBITDA margin. If we exclude the effects of the Lafe brand, the pressure on the EBITDA margin would be 21 basis points vis--vis the third quarter '18, and the margin would reach 26.4% in the quarter.

In the graph to the right, we show you the accumulated comparison of EBITDA. Excluding the nonrecurring events that occurred in the second quarter '19, we reached BRL 583.8 million with a growth of 6.9% and a margin of 26.7%.

In Slide #10, we show you the graph to the left with net income during the period reaching BRL 94.8 million, a growth of 4.9% vis--vis the same period 2018. The net margin was 12.5% compared to 13.2% in the third quarter 2018.

To the right, we show you the accumulated comparison of net income. Excluding the effects that are not recurrent, we reached BRL 281.9 million, a growth of 3.1% and a net margin of 12.9%.

In Slide #11, to the left, we show you the operating cash flow graph recording BRL 212.8 million in the quarter, an increase of 22.6%. The conversion to operating cash into EBITDA reached 108.3%. This quarter, the average term of receivables reached 66 days, a reduction of 2 days vis--vis the third quarter '18, with a positive impact on accounts receivables.

To the right of the slide, we present to you the CapEx for the quarter that totaled BRL 40.40 million, a reduction of 58.4% when compared to the third quarter of 2018. This reduction happens mainly in the new units, the expansion of the offer in existing units and technical areas due to the decrease of investments with the opening of new units.

I would like to inform you that in October, we inaugurated a new unit of the a+ brand in So Paulo in Moema with approximately 680 square meters of service area. This new unit has a complete diagnosis area, including magnetic resonance. The company has inaugurated 54 units as part of its expansion plan, a number equivalent to 74% of the lower point of our guidance until 2021.

In Slide #12, in the graph to the left, the ROIC without goodwill reached 38%. Adjusted for nonrecurring events that happened in the second quarter of 2019 and the effect of the acquisition of the Lafe brand, the result was 39.7%. To the right, we show you the evolution of Net Promoter Score reaching 77.7%.

Finally, on Slide #13, we include the events that have already been confirmed with the market for the coming months.

We would now like to open the floor for questions and answers. Thank you very much for your attention.

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Questions and Answers

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Operator [1]

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(Operator Instructions) The first question is from Mr. Joseph from JPMorgan.

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Joseph Giordano, JP Morgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Senior LatAm Healthcare Analyst [2]

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The first question refers to Lafe. Fernando referred to the impact of consolidating Lafe. I would like to ask you when you expect that Lafe will operate in an aligned fashion in the Rio de Janeiro operation when the margin will become more normalized?

The second question refers to your new avenues of growth. How much does the genomic part represent in your brand portfolio? It has given a good push the Fleury brand. And secondly, how these new initiatives, led by Santcorp and others, have contributed to the revenues of the company?

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Carlos Alberto Iwata Marinelli, Fleury S.A. - CEO & Member of Board of Executive Directors [3]

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This is Carlos Marinelli, and I would like to answer your questions and speak more about our genomic initiatives and then Fernando will refer to what is happening with Lafe.

When it comes to the issue of genomic, we have an enormous pressure of seeing how the market responds to our genomic solution. This is a business unit with a very rapid growth. Nowadays, in 2019, it represents 2% of the revenues of the group, once again, all concentrated on genomics. And we have fast growth. The greater challenge in this area are the effects that we have mentioned, the impact on gross margin. It is a highly specialized section that requires a great deal of investment in equipment but also specialized people. And therefore, it is natural that as we're focused on genomics and growth, at this point, we have greater pressure on our gross margin.

But this is the goal precisely. The goal is to become leaders in genomics throughout Brazil, as we already are, and to continue to grow this market. We're convinced that this is a market that will add to the traditional diagnostic medicine, and it will enhance the outcome for patients in the future connected to our health platform. It will help us in terms of information, how to use information, and we will have an ever more greater participation in the life of the patients, especially in the long term. This is something we will continue to invest in.

At present, it has had an impact on our gross revenue, but everything is under control. And of course, we are working hard on efficiency so that this can become an ever important part of the company.

In terms of Santcorp, we inaugurated the first unit in the shared site. It was working in another way. This is a purely Santcorp shared site, and there will be other inaugurations in the coming months. This is an initiative that we're also focusing on because of the growth. Santcorp is an operation with a dynamic that is different from others. It is highly connected. It has the ability of generating strong business, and we see the enormous attraction on the part of several of our customers in the health area. Companies that offer with post-payment also desire these services. And the leverage of the platform will be very strong. And soon, we will announce another inauguration in terms of the shared site.

This is still a small operation. It's marginal in our business. But it has that characteristic. The isolated revenues of Santcorp are one thing, but the impact and the future impact on the company growth will become decisive in our business. Therefore, we continue to focus on growth in genomics as well as in the part of Santcorp. And we firmly believe that these are strategic initiatives that are pillars of our growth strategy for our platform. And we believe that they will attain maturity very quickly, showing our capacity to leverage growth.

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Fernando Augusto Rodrigues Leo, Fleury S.A. - Chief Financial, IR and Legal Officer & Member of Board of Executive Directors [4]

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This is Fernando. Regarding Lafe, we have 2 main factors in terms of integration. The first is to have in-house exams that will be processed by the technical area. This already happened in the third quarter.

And secondly, the elimination of systems that will happen now at the beginning of November. In the third quarter, we continue to have costs that relate to the Lafe models of BrandZ, where they work with outsourced services. We're still carrying these expenses, and these expenses were partially mitigated in the last month. This is something that will no longer appear in the fourth quarter. And what will be different in the fourth quarter will be a fuller integration into our system.

We hope that this effect or this carry effect of cost linked to Lafe will be lower compared to the third quarter, and that we will enter the first quarter of 2020 with an operation that is much more similar to what we have in terms of margins.

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Operator [5]

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Our next question is from Thiago Macruz from Ita BBA.

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Thiago Capucci Macruz, Ita Corretora de Valores S.A., Research Division - Research Analyst [6]

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The first question is the following. You mentioned an improvement in the premium market and some in-house measures that you have taken to improve the relationship with physicians or doctors. Could you give us more details on the ramp-up of these initiatives? What will this represent for the penetration of the company? And how will this help other issues in the company?

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Carlos Alberto Iwata Marinelli, Fleury S.A. - CEO & Member of Board of Executive Directors [7]

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Thank you for your question. I -- we do have several initiatives, and we have perhaps a dozen initiatives and we have specific projects to work on the Fleury brand. With this, as we mentioned, there are dozens of initiatives each of which contribute towards the relationship with doctors, consultancy with doctors, bringing customers closer. And we have initiatives such as the intensification of integration. We do have projects that are being intensified by specialty, allowing greater comfort to the requesting physician in terms of the reading of the diagnosis of their patients. We are saving a great deal of time for the physicians in their offices, we're conveying information, communication and generating greater knowledge regarding their patients or customers.

When it comes to our specialized units, in a short while, we're going to be launching a revitalization of the pediatrics area with new personnel in our children's area. And of course, this represents a great deal of comfort for the parents of these children. We have also invested heavily in our relationship with pediatrician. We have a very effective relationship. This is a specialty that demands rapid communication, comfort when it comes to the parents, and this has been enhanced significantly.

Simply to mention one more. This week, we worked in the field of technology on thyroid. This was very successful. We had 200 physicians in So Paulo learning more about our technological evolution. And besides these 3, we have dozens of initiatives, each of which is building higher penetration into the market for the Fleury Group and as we can observe when it comes to our increase in market share in this market segment.

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Operator [8]

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The next question is from Mr. Gustavo Oliveira from UBS.

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Gustavo Piras Oliveira, UBS Investment Bank, Research Division - Head of LatAm Research & Latin America Consumer Analyst [9]

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I would like to go back to the question about the genomic processes and gain an understanding of how you're thinking about this business and the impact it has had on your gross revenue.

2 questions in the short term, especially. Your contribution margin in this product is negative presently. Therefore, I don't truly understand what is happening. Perhaps it is a process of a problem with pricing or because it doesn't have a great scale. And this will not happen in 1 or 2 years when we think about the rollout.

The second question refers to what you're thinking about this project as part of your health platform. It's very easy if you can think that this product will continue to grow with a negative margin. And if you project the gross margin going forward, will this truly continue to grow with this negative impact now? And which will be the impact on the total platform, which are the data that you will collect and the additional services that you will offer?

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Edited Transcript of FLRY3.SA earnings conference call or presentation 25-Oct-19 2:00pm GMT - Yahoo Finance

Latest posts by Ethan Taylor (see all)

According to the latest study conducted by Trends Market Research (TMR) the global market for precision medicine is anticipate grow manifold, reflecting a robust CAGR of over XX% during 2018 to 2025.

Rapid augmentation of the medicine industry across the globe will certainly benefit the global market forprecision medicine. In addition, factors such as growing infrastructural development, higher investments, streamlined drug approval systems along with companion diagnostics are expected to favor the overall market growth during the assessment period. Cost-effective DNA profiling and increasing prevalence of carcinogenic diseases worldwide are additional factors that are projected to propel the market growth. Moreover, apt storage of genome data is of great significance to the global market for precision medicine as demand for data medicare is on the rise. However, acute data storage capacity, data privacy breach and discrepancies in funding systems and hefty price tag of personalized drugs may deter the market growth in the near future.

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The global market for precision medicine has been categorized into various parent segments that are further segmented into smaller sub-divisions.

On the basis of technology, next-gen sequencing, bioinformatics and drug discovery technology are expected to be the technologies highlighting the expanding the market width in forthcoming years. Based on applications, the oncology segment is expected to witness an overwhelming growth and is estimated to reach US$ XX Billion over 2025, reflecting a staggering XX% CAGR. This is primarily owing to increasing prevalence of tumor-related disease amongst the global geriatric population. On the other hand, increasing cases of arthritis will favor the growth of immunology segment, which is expected to surpass US$ XX Million in revenues by 2025 end.

Vendor News

Key players operating in the global market for precision medicine include Eli Lilly And Company, Novartis AG, AstraZeneca and Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings. Most of the companies are implementing market strategies involving mergers, tie-ups and acquisitions. Increasing collaboration between healthcare and IT is expected to deliver fruitful gains to the market, expanding the overall business canvas for the stakeholders in the upcoming years.

Request Report For Toc:https://www.trendsmarketresearch.com/report/requesttoc/3437

The popularity of precision medicine has grown significantly across various parts of the world, hence on the basis of region, the markets for precision medicine in Asia Pacific, North America, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East and Africa (MEA) is set to achieve new figures of growth over the next eight years. Precisely, the market in North America is expected to present new lucrative opportunities, occupying over XX% share of the market during the forecast period. In addition, the region is estimated to surpass a market valuation of over US$ XX Million by the end of 2025.

The US and Canada will be the heavyweights of the global market owing to the existence of well-established medical industries in both the countries. In Europe, the market is expected to witness a steady growth and will increase its revenues charts close to US$ XX Million, riding on a healthy CAGR of over XX% during the assessment period. This is largely due to the increasing demand for precision medicines in countries such as France, UK, Italy and Germany. The Asia Pacific region is another region which is considered to be full of business potentials. The region is projected to increase at over XX% CAGR to reach approximately US$ XX Million by 2025 end. The market in APAC will be heavily dominated by Japan, while, India and China will compete for the second spot. Likewise, the in Latin America the market is expected to surge at a pace in terms of revenue over 2025. However, MEA will witness a sluggish growth of the market which is attributed to the lack of initiatives for conductive extensive research and development activities.

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Precision Medicine Market to Witness a Healthy Growth during 2018-2025 - Guru Online News

The vanilla in your favorite bakery cupcake was probably made with petrochemicals. Lets ferment it ... [+] instead.

The demand for natural products is growing, along with consumers increasing attention to the environment and their health. Consumers are seeking brand alternatives that help them make better, more responsible choices, whether to reduce landfill waste or select healthier ingredients.

Companies like General Mills, Hersheys, and Nestl have heard the message and vowed to eliminate artificial ingredients from foods and replace them with natural ingredients. So say goodbye to your blue Trix cereal and artificially flavored sodas.

The problem is, there isnt enough natural to go around.

Take vanilla, for example, the most popular flavor on the planet. The flavor comes from a molecule called vanillin, the main compound extracted from the vanilla bean. According to Chemical & Engineering News, about 85% of vanillin is chemically synthesized. Less than 1% actually comes from real vanilla, which involves arduous hand cultivation and harvesting from vanilla orchids, mostly in Madagascar.

And just as demand for real vanilla is increasing, production is falling. With demand on the upswing, trade in the worlds most popular flavor is way out of balance, and getting worse.

Biology has an app for that

A few weeks ago, Boston-based biomanufacturing company Conagen and global chemical giant BASF announced a new partnership to address this problem. Conagen is lending BASF its expertise in fermentation, the ancient technique used in brewing beer and baking bread that uses microorganisms like bacteria or fungi to convert one substance into another. In this case, Conagen has cultivated a microbe that can take glucose and turn it into the valuable substance vanillin.

Fermented vanillin is the exact same molecule you would get from a vanilla bean. Fermentation has the added advantage of producing pure, reliable ingredients. And because the fermented product is equivalent to what you get from nature, it can be labeled natural flavoring.

With BASF, Conagen will help BASF scale up its vanillin fermentation process, which BASF will market for use in natural flavorings like chocolate, strawberry, and caramel. The partnership will strengthen BASFs biotechnology in the natural food and flavors ingredients market.

To understand why this is a big deal, you first have to understand who BASF is.

The biggest company youve never heard of

BASF is the largest chemical maker in the world, with 63 billion in revenues in 2018. Its based in Germany but has facilities all over the world, supplying companies in the pharmaceutical, construction, textile, and automotive industries with the chemical building blocks of modern industry. Most of us have never heard of these chemicals, or can even pronounce them, but all of us are probably familiar with one of BASFs 90,000 partners, including many well-known consumer brands.

Despite its size and global presence, BASF has a low public profile. Theres a great old marketing campaign circa 1991 that captures this very well: At BASF, we dont make a lot of the products you buy. We make a lot of the products you buy better.

If you ask me, synthetic biology is a lot like that: It doesnt necessarily change the kind of things you buy, its just making them greener, better, and less expensive. Conagen is just the latest example of how companies in this space are disrupting value chains and providing fully integrated solutions to others, making plug-and-play biomanufacturing possible.

The partnership is just one example of how companies like BASF no. 115 on the Fortune Global 500 are being transformed by the convergence of tech and bio and the growing bioindustrial revolution.

Vanillin is just a tiny example. There is a huge industrial demand for other flavors, such as orange (valencene) and grapefruit (nootkatone).

Then theres the fragrance industry, which relies on more exotic scents like musk (muscone), skunk (crotyi mercaptan), and ambergris (ambrox) to create those exquisite fragrance combinations we treasure at the perfume counter. In the old days, it was necessary to kill animals to obtain fragrance ingredients like musk. Thats now illegal, and the development of synthetic musks for the fragrance industry is credited with saving the musk deer from extinction.

Conagen is one of several companies working to meet the demand for natural flavors and fragrances. Many of the biggest flavors and fragrances companies (Firmenich, Givaudan, Robertet, and Takasago among them) are partnering with synthetic biology companies like Ginkgo Bioworks, Evolva, Amyris, and Conagen to produce sustainable ingredients.

This is bigger than food

And even though the entire flavors and fragrances market is estimated at over $20 billion,food is just one small area where synthetic biology can enable us to sustainably biomanufacture precision chemicals. The pharmaceutical industry stands to win, too.

For example, Conagen just launched a glycoprotein platform that could transform the immunotherapy and antibody-drug market the kind of drugs that help your native immune system better identify and respond to all sorts of diseases, including cancer. This is the category of drugs that includes monoclonal antibodies a market segment estimated at $100 billion alone.

Conagens biotechnology platform would reduce the time and capital to develop these drugs in the pharmaceutical industry. As a result, the technology would reduce costs, and patients reap the savings.

As synthetic biology drives down R&D costs and makes industrial scale-up cheaper and more agile, a new era of pharma will pursue a widening range of diseases beginning with so-called orphan diseases (affecting 200,000 or fewer people) and continuing to personalized medicine.

Smaller drug companies could also get in on the act.

As Conagen CEO Oliver Yu explained to me, The R&D at the bench level is only the first part of developing a product. Once you have developed a proof of concept, its a long way to go to get to the finished product. Over the past decade, Yu has built a vertically integrated team of experts in fermentation and industrial biomanufacturing that enable companies with a good idea to scale it to commercial levels.

Yu looks around and sees his industry becoming more product-oriented, and it's a good sign. There are companies making probiotics, there are companies using synthetic biology to treat disease, there are companies making DNA and RNA and enzymes to address specific illnesses and health concerns. So theres a lot we can do.

The focus of Conagen is always on the product, Yu said.

Industry trends in natural ingredients, and the cost of inaction

Companies that are slow to get on the natural ingredients bandwagon may pay a price. Take Johnson & Johnson, which reported a 20% decline in the sales of its flagship baby product brand, with its CFO stating that it looks like Millennial moms are trying a lot of new organic natural premium-type brands. It announced very robust plans to relaunch its 124-year-old brand.

Others who have been more sensitive to consumer demand have created their own sustainable product lines. In 2016 Procter & Gamble launched Tide Pureclean, which its CFO said already holds a 7% share of the pure and naturals segment and is driving over 150% of the natural segment growth. It recently went a step further in introducing EC30, a wafer-like replacement to liquid cleaners that stands to reduce carbon emissions on a global scale.

Keeping it real

Above all else, some experts believe that transparency and authenticity are key in the natural products market.

Consumers want to know exactly whats in their products and how they are made. They want to be empowered to make informed decisions for themselves about how well a product represents their lifestyle values. Consumer brands and biotechnology companies must understand those human values and strive to meet them as genuinely as possible, even in the face of our increasingly tech-driven world.

Synthetic biology is delivering consumers new choices that are more sustainable, more efficient, and less expensive. And who knows, they might just be more delicious.

Acknowledgement: Thank you to Kevin Costa for additional research and reporting in this post.

Please note: I am the founder ofSynBioBeta, and some of the companies that I write about, including Conagen, are sponsors of theSynBioBeta conference(click herefor a full list of sponsors).

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Better Than Nature: Why Fermenting Vanilla Is Good For Consumers, The Environment, And The Economy - Forbes

Google's recent claim that it has achieved quantum computing supremacy apart from being contested by rival tech giants such as IBM is still quite a ways off in terms of real-world applications.

The healthcare industry, for example, will still need to build a new set of applications to take advantage of quantum, and it still won't account for the cost of the hardware and the operating costs to cool the systems and keep them operational.

If healthcare costs were not already high enough, these capabilities don't help in keeping cost burdens low, and because quantum introduces all kinds of potential security risks, data privacy for healthcare patients could be compromised even further.

However, possible applications for artificial intelligence and machine learning to help with data analysis could prove critical further down the road.

Quantum computing could provide unprecedented power and speed of processing as well as novel and fundamentally different algorithmic search and data homogenization strategies.

"The exponential computing speedup offered by quantum computers will enable machine learning algorithms to rapidly identify patterns in healthcare data collected from millions of participating patients," Mario Milicevic, an IEEE member and staff communication systems engineer at MaxLinear, told Healthcare IT News.

He explained medical imaging and pathology would likely be the first to benefit, as quantum computers could be used to train machine learning algorithms with more classifiers to identify diseases in a fraction of the time that it takes today.

Milicevic noted quantum computers could also accelerate DNA sequencing, which would enable the more effective cancer treatment through personalized medicine.

A central challenge that remains is collecting and curating healthcare data uniformly across a multitude of sources in such a way that it can be processed by quantum algorithms.

Nick Hatt, senior developer at digital health company Redox, cautioned that it's going to be important to not buy into the hype too much at such an early stage.

"No one should be putting a down payment on a quantum computer today," he said. "The methods used today in AI/ML are well understood and run reasonably fast on conventional computers."

Hatt explained that what healthcare CIOs need to worry about is cryptography.

"Essentially all of the ways we secure our health data -- from APIs that transmit it, to the actual storage on disk," he said. "The data is at risk of being completely and utterly broken."

From a clinical healthcare perspective alone, the quantum computing technology could lead to "dramatic" accelerations in speed and performance.

"MRIs were basically invented because of our acquired understanding of quantum physics, and getting a true quantum computer will allow us to truly understand the nature of all matter, which means everything from better medicine with less side effects to better diagnostics," Roger Grimes, data-driven defense evangelist at KnowBe4, told HealthcareITNews.

With increased computing available, clinicians could easily review CT scans over time and quickly identify changes and anomalies. Similarly, precision medicine can be accelerated.

Targeted chemotherapy protocols can be identified more quickly, and with more customization, with quantum computing's enhanced data processing abilities.

"All of the above apply to oncology specifically as well," noted Dr. Doug Walled, an IEEE member and an attending physician in diagnostic radiology and nuclear medicine.

He explained roving machine learning algorithms crawling across disparate systems could adapt unlike data, and much more rapidly change the treatment landscape for various types of cancer.

The kind of massive processing power and intelligence quantum computing will bring could also change the landscape for AI-based healthcare applications, because clarity will be available much more rapidly.

One tenant of quantum computing is that two "objects" may seem unrelated and, with quantum applied, are realized to be somehow related.

"Extrapolate that idea to healthcare and AI and you can imagine that when AI brings together information and extrapolates parallels in the data that then, science will connect previously unconnectable dots," Mark LaRow, CEO of patient matching services provider Verato, told Healthcare IT News. "Apply this to clinical trials in fields like oncology and pretty soon we cure undiagnosable cancers."

LaRow cautioned one challenge to the adoption and full use of the technology's potential is the limited, incomplete, or inconsistent data sets required to train and be available for mass computational consumption and AI learning.

For example, a chronically ill patient may see more than seven clinicians, and these clinicians document differently, they copy notes from other providers, use shorthand, and think differently.

"This creating inconsistency and incompleteness across the medical record," he said. "Sophisticated solutions like AI and quantum computing will benefit from complete medical records paired with supplementary non-medical information."

Although it may be years even a decade or more before quantum computing becomes a standard part of the healthcare business, LaRow noted these "wickedly futuristic technologies" have, in the last five years, evolved to seem tangible.

"Ultimately, I believe, that these technologies will become so reliable that it will be deemed unethical for a clinician NOT to consult with a powerful AI informed computing system to double check a diagnosis and to recommend a treatment regimen," he said.

Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication.

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Quantum computing could turbocharge healthcare analytics, AI - Healthcare IT News

Artificial intelligence has been much discussed of late, but will it really help us solve important problems like how to bring personalized medicine to as many patients as possible? Kate Hilyard, COO of Healx in Cambridge in the UK, believes it can.

Getting a drug to clinical trials currently requires a large investment of both time and money with no guarantee that it will be successful in the long term, or reach the market. Hilyard has a lot of experience of drug development, ranging from big pharma to biotech, and understands this process well.

Recent developments in AI and data mining has led to the founding of a number of companies trying to apply this technology to improving health. Healx is one such company and is seeking to make drug development quicker, easier, and more effective, all factors that attracted Hilyard to join as COO last year.

Ive done drug discovery for 25 years the traditional way. I knew about the massive failure rate, Hilyard told me. The AI approach sounded intriguing and the more I learned about it, the more clever I think it is because it uses information thats already out there.

Hilyard began her career in drug development at Roche, before moving on to work at the established biotech Cambridge Antibody Technology.

I wanted to make a difference to patients lives this was something that really interested me about human biology. Thats why I did biochemistry as a degree. Working in academia was great and I learned a lot, but I just felt it was too distant from really making an impact.

Cambridge Antibody Technology was one of the first companies to produce antibody or biologic drugs. It developed the blockbuster arthritis drug Humira, which helped lead to its acquisition by AstraZeneca for more than 800M in 2006. One of its co-founders, Greg Winter, shared the Nobel prize for chemistry in 2018 for work that led to Humiras development.

It was really exciting to work there because it was a biologics company. We were all working in discovering antibody therapeutics where biologics as drugs werent so accepted in those days It was as if people didnt really believe antibodies as drugs were going to work. Now, biologics are at the heart of many company pipelines.

As well as working for both big pharma and biotech, Hilyard also spent a number of years working for the large contract research organization Charles River.

It was a fantastic learning experience in that I learned how to be a businesswoman. Working at a CRO is all about running a profitable business, so I learned about commercial, legal, financial aspects, cost control, managing change In a pharma company, you work towards your budget, but thats it; youre not seeing the bigger picture.

This experience taught Hilyard that, while they can be effective, traditional drug development techniques have room for improvement. She believes Healxs novel approach can improve the drug development process.

Youre using knowledge thats out there, somewhat like a sustainable drug discovery method. Youre using machine learning to be able to query that information to find new treatments. You make these novel connections between the disease and the drug. Its a completely different approach and I liked the fact that it was different.

Healx is using an approach that collects a vast amount of both public and proprietary data from medical literature and databases such as DrugBank. It then extracts useful information using algorithms that have been developed by the technology team. The data are put to good use by Healxs pharmacology and drug development team, which uses it to search for viable drug candidates.

You need this drug discovery expertise input as you cant let the algorithms do it by themselves. Its just too difficult a problem. The algorithms make predictions and then we have our experts review those predictions and decide which are the best ideas and best hypotheses to take forward to test in the disease models.

There are many advantages to this approach, according to Hilyard. Because the computer is doing all the hard work, it means we can do it a lot more quickly and cheaply than the traditional approach It means we can cover so many more diseases. Weve already got ten active programs and our goal is to have started 100 programs by 2025.

Healx has already had some successes. Its most advanced program is a treatment for fragile X syndrome using a repurposed compound. The drug candidate has reached the point where it can be tested in clinical trials. This process took less than two years instead of the normal five-to-seven years the traditional approach would have taken.

We are planning to start our clinical trial early in 2020. That would be about two-to-three years from project initiation to phase II, which is amazing.

Personalized medicine has developed over the last 10-15 years from being a hope for the future to a practical reality. For example, many modern cancer treatments are designed to treat a specific group of patients or tumors.

Cancers are not just being defined by the tissue or organ they originate in anymore; theyre being defined by the molecular descriptors. We think everybody is going to be working on diseases with small-patient populations eventually because well just understand the disease biology much better.

An approach such as the one adopted by Healx can be instrumental in providing tailored therapies to more people.

Were trying to enhance the success rate of clinical trials. You do that by working out which patient population is the right one to test it in. Obviously, if youre looking for a small effect, you dont want to have a lot of non-responders in the group that mean the small effects are hidden statistically.

While AI can be very useful for developing more effective and personalized therapies, Hilyard emphasizes that it is important to remember that it is only a tool and that tools are only as good as their users.

All the AI does is allow you to process large amounts of data, which you wouldnt normally be able to do. You can also try to find patterns in it and learn new things, but there are patterns that need to be explained. You then need to have experts to look at them.

I think if you have specific questions, thats when it really works and you can process massive amounts of data. Thats the key thing. You can use it to do something that a human cant do.

Coming from a background in biochemistry and traditional drug development, working at Healx has been a different experience for Hilyard. But one she has found very inspiring.

My colleagues do things in a different way and we have different languages and we think differently. Its been great to create this, as I describe it, chimera where youre creating cross-functional teams that combine computer scientists with pharmacologists and were creating great science out of that. I really like the fact that its different.

It does take a bit more energy for everybody, but everybody whos in Healx knows that. They all know that were making this combination to completely change the way drug discovery is done. Everybody is fully into building something new.

Images via E. Resko and Shutterstock

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Channeling the Power of AI into Personalizing... - Labiotech.eu

Finding new medicines is like finding a needle in a haystack. By linking a powerful computational ... [+] approach to advances in chemical manufacturing, this company is making piles of needles.

Finding new drugs is hard. Sometimes we dont even know how a disease works, and drug tests in animals dont always go the same as in humans. Drugs can even behave very differently from person to person. And because companies dont tend to share data with one another about failures, we cant learn from each other and the larger data pool. The whole process is extremely expensive, and the cost is ultimately borne by us, the consumers.

But what if drug discovery could go from finding a needle in a haystack to making small piles of needles?

Thats what Abe Heifets wants to do. Abe is the CEO and co-founder of Atomwise, a 50-person biotech startup based in San Francisco. And he thinks hell find the next blockbuster drug using a technology you carry in your own pocket: neural networks.

Whats a neural network anyway?

If youve ever used Siri or Alexa, or uploaded a photo to Facebook, then youve used neural networks, says Abe. A neural network is a set of computer instructions (algorithms) that resemble human brain function where it comes to recognizing patterns and clusters in data. The data can be images, sound, text, or other information like molecules at the atomic level.

Consider three kinds of data. Speech is one-dimensional data: a single audio signal varying over time. Images are two-dimensional data because the pixel color depends on both the x coordinate and the y coordinate. Atoms are three-dimensional because they have x, y, and z coordinates: height, width, and depth.

Speech-to-text software uses 1D neural networks. The vision systems of self-driving cars use 2D neural networks. Atomwises insight was to develop a 3D neural network that could see and understand molecules in space in the same way a self-driving car sees the world. Instead of red, green, and blue color channels at every grid point, we have carbon, oxygen, sulfur, and nitrogen channels, he says.

How does it work?

Let's say you're a professor at UC San Francisco, says Abe, and you think that if you can just block protein XYZ, you can cure Alzheimer's That's a great paper you can publish in Nature, but you can't help a patient with that. You actually need the drug.

Thats where Atomwise comes in. You say, Give me a molecule for XYZ. And it can be on Alzheimer's, cancer, malaria, whatever you want Atomwises AI system searches for the best small molecules among millions and millions.

By default, Atomise starts with a chemical library of 10 million small molecules. From this pool, Atomwises algorithms sift through and identify the most promising molecules 7% of 1% of 1%, just a tiny sliver. They then order them inexpensively from a third-party manufacturer and ship them to their customer on a 96-well plate. From there, Atomwises customers can test the molecules and see how they work in their systems.

How big is big? Ultra-economies of scale

For context, big pharma companies typically have 3 to 5 million small molecules in their entire collections. So Atomwise can double that.

A decade or maybe 15 years ago, you and I could buy a million molecules off-the-shelf. Last year, we could buy 300 million. This year its 11 billion molecules that you and I can order for 100 bucks a pop and get shipped to us in six weeks, Abe told me. He thinks next year itll be 100 billion.

Atomises business model is akin to Dell in the 90s: You custom-design your computer from any possible combination of peripherals and memory, enter your credit card info, and press submit. Dell goes out and buys the peripherals and builds only the computers it

Chemistry has undergone the same transformation in the last decade, says Abe, where chemical manufacturers are storing all the building blocks and making chemicals on-demand. What they're selling you is the Cartesian product of how to put those together.

With an important difference in Atomwises case: They are also selling a highly intelligent selection of chemical products, based on customers needs.

This is virtual chemistry, on-demand chemistry, right? Abe says. We've shifted from a world of scarcity in chemistry, to a world of abundance.

Abe likens the space to other neural network we use all the time: Netflix has way more movies than you could ever watch, and YouTube has way more cat videos than you can ever see, right? But how do we get a new cat video, one that you feel like watching right now? These are questions of filtering, matching, searching. These are AI questions.

The origins of a good idea

Abe studied computer science at Cornell, where he worked on the AI system for soccer-playing robots (his team won the RoboCup World Champion in 2001). From there, he worked at an IBM research center in Boston. I worked there on what today we would probably call Big Data, recalls Abe, but at the time, we didn't have that phrase, so we called it high performance data processing.

The work was rewarding, but Abe wanted to do more. And that time, he got interested in medicine (Everyone needs a hobby, he says sheepishly). He started taking chemistry classes at Harvard, where the mixing of chemicals felt very grainy to him compared to computer science.

Abe decided to go back for his PhD and landed in a computational biology group at the University of Toronto. Abes lab shared a coffee pot with the machine learning group of Geoffrey Hinton inventor of deep neural networks. Thats also where he met his Atomwise co-founder and CTO, Izhar Izzy Wallach. Izzy had been writing structural biology algorithms for a small pharma company. Combined with Abes work on big data and the influence of deep neural networks being created in the lab next door, and Atomwise was a natural fusion of it all.

Anything but academic

Applying this thinking is not a mere academic exercise, and investors know it. Atomwise was first selected to join Y Combinators Winter 2015 class. By the end of Y Combinator, several well-known venture capitalists were ready to invest in the promise of applying neural nets to drug discovery, including DCVC (where I am an operating partner), Khosla Ventures, Threshold, and Tim Draper. By March 2018, Atomwise closed its $45 million Series A round.

And the technology is maturing nicely, Atomwise just reported the results of a collaboration with Stanford University and the Mayo Clinic that used Atomwises technology as a kind of AI virtual drug screen to identify a potential treatment for Parkinsons disease. Its also a proof-of-concept for making personalized medicine for this disease quickly and cheaply.

Weve been running the world's largest application of machine learning to drug discovery in history, says Abe. He recently presented those project results to the American Chemical Society. This is a project that we've been running where we have over 250 projects with hundreds of universities in 36 countries, he says. We work on every major disease, we work on every protein class.

Today, Atomwise is working with a number of big and small pharma companies, particularly around cancer treatments. One partnership, with Hansoh Pharma, marks the largest China-US collaboration for AI drug discovery and could amount to $1.5 billion if all milestones are achieved.

What 21st-century pharma companies will look like

As Old Pharma outsources AI drug discovery and more, Abe thinks it will change the face of pharma companies. It probably doesn't look like four brick walls with everything happening inside. It probably looks more like a series of alliances that come together.

If youre a small biotech with some deep insight into biology, are you going to spin up your own mouse testing, sales force, and chemical manufacturing? No, says Abe. You want to partner with Big Pharma, who has those kinds of relationships already in place. And so it's a question of teamwork.

Companies like Atomwise are a great example of how the convergence of tech and bio is creating valuable and important new consumer possibilities that were previously off limits, while also disrupting existing value chains in huge industries like pharma.

If your company could biomanufacture any chemical imaginable, what would it be?

Acknowledgement: Thank you to Kevin Costafor additional research and reporting in this post.

Please note: I am the founder ofSynBioBeta, and some of the companies that I write about, including DCVC, are sponsors of theSynBioBeta conference(click herefor a full list of sponsors).

More:
How Neural Nets Will Personalize Medicine: Meet The Startup Thats Changing How We Find New Drugs - Forbes

In September 2018, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) sent an email announcing that it would no longer cover Auryxia. Auryxia is an FDA approved medicine that treats iron deficiency anemia (anemia) for patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) but who are not on dialysis.

People with CKD have damaged kidneys that no longer filter their blood properly. Currently, 30 million people in the U.S. are living with CKD, and for these patients, anemia is common. If left untreated, anemia increases the risks for cardiovascular disease, end-stage renal disease, and premature death. These patients also have increased hospitalization rates and lower overall quality of life. From a cost perspective, untreated anemia increases the annualized cost of CKD by nearly $29,000 per patient.

Even based on a cold cost-benefit analysis, simple arithmetic argues against dropping coverage of Auryxia. The manufacturers label lists the starting dose for iron deficiency anemia in CKD cases at 1 tablet 3 times per day, while the average dosage in clinical trials was 5 tablets per day. Since a supply of two hundred 210 mg tablets costs around $1,200 according to Drugs.com, the annual cost of Auryxia based on the price offered on drugs.com ranges between $6,570 - $10,950. This does not account for Medicare Part D discounts, which are usually significant, but even without the savings, Medicare would reduce spending by treating anemia with Auryxia compared to the costs associated with untreated anemia.

Alternative anemia treatments are available for Auryxia, so the actual trade-off is not between having a medicine to treat anemia and not having one. However, Auryxia is the only FDA approved oral therapy. All of the other treatments that are approved by the FDA are medicines delivered intravenously and must be administered by a physician in a clinical setting.

Intravenous products are costlier to administer because there are additional infusion administration fees that must be covered. Patients must also take time out of their day to go to the clinic or hospital and sit through the administration of an intravenous (IV) medicine. For most patients, taking a medicine orally at home (or work) is a much more preferred option than being stuck with a needle on a regular basis. Further, IV Infusion also places patients at greater risk of infection and venous injury.

Even though Medicare Part D is denying coverage to Auryxia, Medicare Part B covers the cost of these more expensive infusion drugs that are used to treat anemia. Denying coverage to Auryxia under Medicare Part D effectively pushes people toward using the more expensive infusion drugs that will be paid for by Medicare Part B. Therefore, not only is Medicare denying patients access to a medicine that might be more appropriate for them, it costs the system more money to do so.

Perhaps even more troubling for the quality of the health care system, this decision represents another instance where bureaucrats limit the ability of doctors (in this case nephrologists, or doctors who specialize in kidney care) to prescribe the treatment they deem to be the most appropriate for their patients. Ultimately, health care quality will decline should authority continue to be transferred away from doctors and patients to the health care bureaucracy.

CMS bureaucratic decision is simply illogical from a reimbursement policy perspective, absurd from a patient perspective, and inconsistent with the evaluation of the FDA as well as the medical evidence as reported in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology. Given that this decision is not justifiable based on the medical evidence, why would CMS decide to cut off coverage?

CMS has not been forthcoming, but as reported in Stat News, it appears that CMS considers Auryxia a mineral, like iodine or vitamin C, which Medicare typically doesnt cover. Therefore by denying coverage to Auryxia, CMS appears to believe that it is simply creating consistency across these products. This conclusion makes no sense, however. Not only has the FDA approved Auryxia as a drug, CMS currently covers it as a drug for the treatment for other complications from kidney disease.

The Auryxia case demonstrates that government bureaucracies run by their own logic, and often this logic conflicts with the interests of patients. The costs of this policy will be compounded should policies like Medicare for All or Medicare for All Who Want It be adopted. And, this problem is sure to worsen in the future as innovations in gene therapies and personalized medicine mean that doctors will need more authority to prescribe the best treatment for an individual patient, not less.

Going forward, both near-term and long-term changes are necessary. In the near-term, it is unconscionable that Medicare patients are being denied a more efficacious treatment that will actually reduce overall health care expenditures. In fact, due to its efficacy, virtually every Medicaid and commercial insurer in America currently covers Auryxia for iron deficiency anemia in CKD patients. Consequently, CMS should restore Medicare Part D coverage for Auryxia.

In the long-term, policymakers need to learn the lessons from this coverage snafu. Health care reforms that expand the governments control over treatments will lead to more and more cases like Auryxia. The best way to control health care costs and improve the quality of care is to empower patients and doctors to decide which treatments are best.

Link:
Medicares Denial Of Coverage To Kidney Patients Could Be Just The Beginning - Forbes

Each of us appears to have a unique way of moving, a physical signature that is ours alone, like our face or fingerprints, according to a remarkable new study of people and their muscles. The study, which used machine learning to find one-of-a-kind patterns in peoples muscular contractions, could have implications for our understanding of health, physical performance, personalized medicine and whether and why people can respond so differently to the same exercise.

Intuitively, most of us probably know there is something in the way we move, and that that something defines us. In studies and daily life, most people can pick out their friends and loved ones, based solely on how they walk. At least one surveillance company also claims to be able to identify and track people using their gaits.

But those identifications, whether fond or creepy, rely on external cues about how we look in motion and depend on anatomical features, such as height, limb length or how we swing our arms, which may not be stable. Wear heels, develop sore feet, limp, and you could move differently.

Some scientists have speculated that other subtler, interior movement patterns, such as the ways in which our muscles fire in choreography with one another when we will our body to move, might be particular to each of us and relatively constant. But little research had delved into what our muscles are up to when we move.

So, for the new study, which was published this month in the Journal of Applied Physiology, French and Australian researchers decided to turn to algorithms to ferret out whether unique, personal muscle patterns exist.

The scientists began by recruiting 80 healthy men and women of varying physical sizes and fitness and inviting them to a human performance lab.

There, the volunteers sat on stationary bicycles while researchers adjusted the pedals, handlebars and seats so that everyones riding style would be the same. The researchers also attached electrodes to eight of the muscles in the volunteers legs. The electrodes were designed to read and record electrical activity in those muscles while they contracted. Then the volunteers cycled for 90 seconds multiple times at a range of pedaling speeds.

Next, they moved over to treadmills and, still wearing the electrodes, walked barefoot during multiple 90-second strolls.

Several days later, most of the volunteers returned to the lab and repeated the cycling, walking and electrodes routines.

The researchers then fed all of the muscular-activation readouts into a machine-learning software program, which is a type of artificial intelligence. For the first few examples, the program was told which readouts belonged to which person and directed the program to, in effect, learn that persons muscular-activation style, if it existed.

Finally, the programs algorithm was directed to differentiate the movement patterns, without names attached, and assign them to the correct volunteer.

It turned out to be quite adept, accurately recognizing anonymous movement patterns more than 99 percent of the time when using readouts from all eight muscles. Even when it considered activity from only two muscles, it knew the muscles owners more than 80 percent of the time.

Perhaps most important, the algorithm remained correct about 90 percent of the time when analyzing the readouts from peoples second lab visits.

Taken as a whole, these data suggest that people have distinct, detectable and durable ways of using their muscles, says Franois Hug, a professor of movement science at the University of Nantes who led the new study. The individual patterns remained recognizable even from one day to the next.

The findings are important, Dr. Hug says, because understanding how movement is controlled remains one of the main challenges for many scientific fields. Our simplest-seeming moves are bogglingly complex. A 5-year-old child can manipulate objects with superior dexterity to any robot, he says.

So, quantifying the unique ways in which people walk, pedal or hold a glass could enable scientists to improve and refine robotics, prosthetics, physical therapy and personalized exercise programs.

At a more intimate level, understanding movement signatures conceivably could improve sports training, Dr. Hug says, if it turns out that world-class athletes activate their muscles in ways that can be emulated by those of us who are less swift and graceful.

Movement signatures also might serve as coal-mine canaries for disease or injury risk, he says. He and his colleagues already are studying the relationships between certain muscle-activation patterns and Achilles' tendon problems.

But this research is in its infancy. Dr. Hug cautions. Scientists do not yet know how permanent movement signatures are; if and how they alter with age, weight change or lifestyle; or if it ever will be feasible and affordable for most of us to learn our particular movement signature.

But Dr. Hug hopes this study will remind scientists, doctors and us of every persons immutable exceptionalism.

Differences in the way people move and respond to an intervention are often ignored, he says, but they matter for addressing fundamental questions about health, aging and disease.

Read more here:
Something in the Way We Move - The New York Times

New York, NY /PRNewswire/ - Thermo Fisher Scientific, the world leader in serving science, and Milu Labs., whose mission is to become the leading diagnostic and analysis company focused on cutting edge technologies that address the unmet clinical needs in the Asian market, announced their intent to collaborate on projects to advance the state of clinical research diagnostic technologies with a focus on women's health.

Both parties entered a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the common interest of identifying challenges faced by medical professionals, where there are limited tools for noninvasive risk stratification to predict adverse pregnancy outcomes. The combined teams intend to explore development opportunities that will maximize Thermo Fisher's leading liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) instrumentation, and deploy multiple best in class technologies to enable a new era of personalized medicine.

"Thermo Fisher Scientific's mission is to enable our customers to make the world healthier, cleaner and safer, and our intent to partner with Milu encompasses every aspect of this mission through the evaluation of technologies and clinical research diagnostic assays that are solving real world problems in the China market," said Bradley Hart, senior director, clinical research, chromatography and mass spectrometry, Thermo Fisher Scientific. Under the MOU agreement, a general framework for cooperation has been established to support the development of a clinical mass spectrometry-based proteomics assay, that brings together NX Prenatal's NeXosome platform and Thermo Fisher's analytical technology for the Chinese reproductive health segment. This enables the evaluation of novel pregnancy biomarkers during the gestation period that can correlate with adverse outcomes, such as preterm birth and preeclampsia.

"At Milu, we are committed to developing novel assays and technologies focused in the Women's Health market. Thermo Fisher Scientific shares our vision of accelerating developmental efforts of novel assay platforms with their leading analytical technology to optimize clinical mass spectrometry-based workflows. This will provide the necessary precision for clinical research diagnostic solutions to support personalized medicine strategies. In the near future, we will be expanding to support our efforts into the Oncology vertical," commented Dr. Daniel Chai, Chairman of Milu Labs.

About: Milu LabsMilu Labs is a global diagnostics company that builds, researches, and markets cutting edge technologies to screen and detect major heath conditions. The company focuses on companies in early development as well as those that are already commercialized. Milu Labs is collaborating with global academic institutions and well recognized Healthcare/AI companies to develop the appropriate strategies for regulatory, reimbursement and commercialization in China. http://www.milulabs.com

About Thermo Fisher ScientificThermo Fisher Scientific Inc. is the world leader in serving science, with revenues of more than $24 billion and approximately 70,000 employees globally. Our mission is to enable our customers to make the world healthier, cleaner and safer. We help our customers accelerate life sciences research, solve complex analytical challenges, improve patient diagnostics, deliver medicines to market and increase laboratory productivity. Through our premier brands Thermo Scientific, Applied Biosystems, Invitrogen, Fisher Scientific and Unity Lab Services we offer an unmatched combination of innovative technologies, purchasing convenience and comprehensive services. For more information, please visit http://www.thermofisher.com.

Originally posted here:
Milu Labs And Thermo Fisher Scientific Announce Collaboration MOU To Advance The Expansion Of 'Women's Health Products' In The China Market -...

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Artificial intelligence and machine learning have been utilized for years in the field of healthcare and continue to grow tremendously each year with its ability to advance medicine and discoveries in the industry.

The term precision medicine, sometimes referred to as personalized medicine, is a relatively new term in the healthcare field but the idea has been around for many years in the industry. According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine, precision medicine is "an emerging approach for disease treatment and prevention that takes into account individual variability in genes, environment, and lifestyle for each person."

Precision medicine helps physicians determine more personalized treatments for patients considering individualized approaches instead of a blanketed approach for all patients. They do this by looking at a patients genetic history, location, environmental factors, lifestyle and habits to determine a plan of action for treatment.

With artificial intelligence, it takes precision medicine to the next level and increases the accuracy and prediction of outcome for patients. Some actually believe that precision medicine is not completely possible without the addition of machine learning algorithms to assist in the process.

In a report from Chilmark Research, it states that to achieve the full potential of precision medicine it must be accompanied by machine learning and artificial intelligence due to the deep learning technology and ability to analyze large data sets faster than clinicians and medical researchers.

Not only can AI read and analyze large sets of medical data much faster than a human, it can more accurately determine results to come to conclusions about a patients treatment options and possible outcomes of the treatment.

With AI, the ability to not only predict outcomes but also be able to predict future patients probability of having diseases is a major benefit for precision medicine. By better understanding why diseases may occur and in what environments they are more likely to occur, artificial intelligence can help in the education of medical professionals to know what to look for before a disease is showing symptoms. To be able to evaluate the risk of disease in patient populations is revolutionary for healthcare and the lives of many.

Machine learning can also help improve FDA regulations of tests, drugs and pharmaceutical partnerships to help support treatments. Fully achieving precision medicine effectively takes a collaboration of pharmaceutical companies, biotechs, academia, diagnostic companies and others to drive innovation forward.

Amplion, a leading precision medicine intelligence company, recently released Dx:Revenue, a software intelligence platform that uses machine learning to deliver insights into pharmaceutical partnerships.

The platform uses over 34 million data sources from clinical trials, scientific publications, conference abstracts, FDA approved tests, lab tests, and other information to match a test providers capabilities to pharmas specific needs.

This is particularly important in cancer, where were moving away from the one-size-fits-all approach to care toward a more targeted approach with treatments based on the biological characteristics of each patient, said CEO of Amplion Chris Capdevlia. Personalizing our approach to healthcare in this way not only results in better outcomes for patients, it also drives down drug development costs through shorter, more successful trials and reduces time to market for valuable drugs all very good news for better patient outcomes.

Precision medicine can truly improve the lives, and even save the lives, of many people and the use of artificial intelligence can increase those outcomes drastically. It can also make treatments more affordable and accessible to those who may not be able to receive those treatments due to cost and health insurance at this time. There are many challenges ahead for precision medicine to be perfect, but artificial intelligence can help drive us closer to those goals.

See more here:
How Artifical Intelligence Is Advancing Precision Medicine - Forbes

Precision medicine uses some of the worlds most sophisticated technologies, but the goal is quite simple: Find the root causes of each patients unique condition and apply the best, most precise treatments.

A good example is cancer, which is not one condition but many. Each patients disease is different, but only recently have we been able to pinpoint these distinctions.

Genomic diagnostics, and other advanced tests, can read a patients tumor DNA and identify the mutations driving his or her cancer. With this information, doctors can prescribe targeted therapies that can help control the disease.

But thats just the beginning. In addition to helping clinicians find the best cancer therapies, precision medicine can also determine, in almost real-time, whether those treatments are working, helping oncologists make midcourse corrections as needed.

Genomic sequencing and other approaches can also delineate a patients risk of recurrence. Emerging liquid biopsy technology may eventually detect cancer at its earliest, most treatable, stages with a simple blood test.

Cancer is just one of many examples.

Genomic sequencing is starting to benefit children with rare diseases. A decade ago, families could wait months or years during the diagnosis odyssey to find out which disease is debilitating their child.

Last year, the Rady Childrens Institute for Genomic Medicine, in San Diego, produced a genomic diagnosis in 19.5 hours, a Guinness World Record.

As sequencing becomes more widely accepted, families will receive these critical diagnoses in days, rather than months.

Precision medicine has applications in heart disease, neurodegenerative conditions, diabetes, autoimmune diseases and many other conditions. Its a new toolbox clinicians can use to find out exactly what ails us and prescribe the best treatments, therapies, and in some cases even cures without time spent on less effective and potentially costly care.

At the California Life Sciences Association, we have been following precision medicines advances with great excitement. We are pleased to have worked closely with the California Legislature, and both Gov. Jerry Brown and Gov. Gavin Newsom, to encourage new investment, and help make these life-saving approaches available to more patients.

In 2015, Gov. Browns office launched the California Initiative to Advance Precision Medicine, a $3 million partnership between the state, California universities and other public and private organizations to accelerate the move to personalized medicine.

This initiative has accelerated the life sciences communitys ability to translate basic science into new diagnostics and treatments. Californias support for precision medicine has encouraged private investment, creating a multiplier effect to help ensure the states continuing life sciences leadership.

Thanks to continued support over the past years by the Legislature, investment from the state has grown to $53 million to advance the California initiative. This noble endeavor will give scientists more resources to develop even better precision diagnostics and treatments.

The $215 billion 2019-2020 state budget extends the California Initiative to Advance Precision Medicines authority to fund projects until June 2025. This extension means it can set longer term goals for the California-based precision medicine innovations it aims to foster.

At the request of the life sciences sector, Gov. Newsom wisely removed restrictions on the initiatives ability to fund projects, providing flexibility on how it distributes resources to researchers up-and-down the state. We applaud the governor for recognizing the importance of precision medicine and for his ongoing support for Californias life sciences community.

In my associations 2019 California Life Sciences Industry Report, we write that the Golden State has the most robust life sciences community in the world, with over 3,400 firms employing 311,000 people.

Each year, this life sciences ecosystem advances thousands of new medicines, devices, diagnostics and other medical interventions. Continued investment in precision medicine will help biomedical innovators continue to move the needle on improving care for patients.

California is a biomedical juggernaut, and the precision medicine research being funded today will impact patients around the world. This leadership should be a great source of pride for every Californian.

____

Mike Guerra is president and CEO of California Life Sciences Association (CLSA), which helps advance public policies that foster and promote medical innovation, [emailprotected] He wrote this commentary for CalMatters.

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California leads the way in precision medicine - CALmatters

Consultant Marc Brush spoke at the inaugural meeting of the Personalized Lifestyle Medicine Institute seven years ago. At the time he was the editor of Nutrition Business Journal.

Brush was invited back as an attendee this year by PLMI founder Dr Jeff Bland ND. Brush said the difference in the atmosphere at this years event compared to the first go round was striking.

Seven years ago, it was, heres this idea; wouldnt it be cool if it worked? Brush said.Now its here and the question is how do you talk about it with consumers? How do you commercialize it?

Formally titled the Thought Leaders Consortium, the event took place last week in Seattle. As the name suggests, the goal of the event was to bring together researchers and clinicians working on the cutting edge science and clinical applications in the space.

Brush said there was extraordinary breadth and depth to the agenda at this years conference. The list of speakers included researchers from Harvard Medical School, Tufts University and the Scripps Institute.

Topics included the application of systems biology to personalized medicine, the use of biomarkers, and global perspectives on microbiome health as well as the overall application of a personalized approach to health care.

Brush said of particular import was a presentation by Albert-Laszlo Barabasi, PhD. Barabasi is a professor both at Northeastern University and the Harvard Medical School. Barabasi said the study of genes as related to disease has moved far beyond the search for one marker that was common even just a few years ago. There is enough information now to take a systems type of approach to managing disease states.

They talked about having genetic information on 54 disease states, Brush said. There was talk about component pathways, about clusters of genes being involved, not just one genetic marker.

And Barabasi talked about what he called the dark matter of nutrition. In the same way that dark matter makes up much of the universe and is someting we dont track, Barabasi talked about how we only track about .5% of the nutrients in food, things like the vitamin and mineral content. He said that two thirds of the effects of nutiriton is associated with the 99.5% of the chemicals in food that we dont track, he said.

So if youre a genetic researcher, you know that only a small percentage of whats going on is related to the genes you are tracking. The good news for the supplement and food industries is what is left over, and all that you can do with lifestyle and nutrition, Brush added.

Much of that information is being uncovered by what researchers are calling GWAS (pronounced GEE-wahs), or Genome-Wide Association Studies. This type of analysis became possible with the first iteration of the human genome published in 2003. In the years since, more than 36,000 studies mentioning GWAS in the title or description have been published on the PubMed database. Just this year alone, more that 2,700 such studies have been added to the database.

Brush said that the interesting, and perhaps unsettling notion for the dietary supplement industry is that to some degree it is along for the ride.

The future of the dietary supplement industry is increasingly being dictated by people outside the industry. Its being driving by people like genetics researchers and microbiome researchers, Brush said.

Brush said that one of the saving graces, and also the Achilles heel, of the personalized medicine approach is how it is moving away from a 1 to 1 equivalency on health care. In other words, the idea of the past has been problem A is solved by drug B; disease A can be explained by genetic factor B. The issues are now seen as far more complex.

Personalized health care embraces that complexity. The pharmaceutical model was always one to one, and even some supplement studies could be seen as matching one natural ingredient to one condition. There is a huge amount of data coming in, and whoever is able to process all that complexity of information will win. The question for the supplement industry is does it have the scientific sophistication to do that? Brush asked.

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Personalized nutrition has taken giant steps in seven years, observer says - NutraIngredients-usa.com

Biotech stocks saw some strength last week. Positive clinical readouts, a couple of M&A deals and hopes of drug companies clinching a broader opioid settlement agreement worked in favor of the sector.

Reata Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ: RETA) was among the strong performers of the week following a positive Phase 2 readout for its drug to treat Friedreich ataxia.

Hereare the key catalysts for the upcoming week.

Conferences

PDUFA Dates

Sunday

The FDA is set to rule on Foamix Pharmaceuticals Ltd (NASDAQ: FOMX)'s NDA for FMX101 in treating inflammatory lesions of non-nodular moderate-to-severe acne vulgaris in patients nine years of age and older.

Monday

The regulatory is also expected to issue its verdict on Eton Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ: ETON)'s NDA for ET-202, a ready-to-use injectable formulation of phenylephrine.

Thursday

Melinta Therapeutics Inc NASDAQ: MLNT) and Ligand Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: LGND) await FDA decision on a label expansion for Baxdella in community-acquired bacterial pneumonia.

The FDA is scheduled to rule on GlaxoSmithKline plc (NYSE: GSK)'s sNDA for Zejula in treating advanced ovarian, fallopian tube, or primary peritoneal cancer patients who have been treated with three or more prior chemotherapy regimens and whose cancer is associated with either BRCA mutation or homologous recombination deficiency.

See Also: Biotech Stock On The Radar: Assessing Mirati's Oncology Franchise With An Eye On Multiple Readouts

Clinical Trial Readouts

Protagonist Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ: PTGX) will present Phase 1 data for PTG-200 in Crohn's disease on Tuesday.

Arvinas Inc (NASDAQ: ARVN) is scheduled to present at the Targeted Protein Degradation Summit initial Phase 1 data on ARV-110 for treating castration-resistant prostate cancer on Wednesday. The company will also present Phase 1 data for ARV-471 in ER+ positive/HER2-negative breast cancer at the summit.

Bellerophon Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ: BLPH) is due to present Phase 2b additional cohort 1data at the CHEST meeting on Wednesday.

Axovant Gene Therapies Ltd (NASDAQ: AXGT) is scheduled to present Phase 1/2 data for AXO-Lenti-PD in Parkinson's disease and AXO-AAV-GM2 in GM2 gangliosidosis. Both presentations are to be made at the ESGCT annual Congress on Wednesday.

Earnings Wednesday, Oct. 23

Thursday, Oct. 24

IPOs

Phathom Pharmaceuticals, a company working on in-licensed assets for treating gastrointestinal disorders, proposes to offer 7.9 million shares in an IPO, estimated to be priced between $18 and $20. The company seeks to list its shares on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol "PHAT."

See more from Benzinga

2019 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

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The Week Ahead In Biotech: Earnings Trickle In, While Glaxo, Melinta, Foamix And Eton Await FDA Verdict - Yahoo Finance

SINGAPORE - The chief executive of the National University Health System (NUHS), Professor John Eu-Li Wong, was elected on Monday (Oct 21) to the United States-based National Academy of Medicine (NAM).

Election to the academy is "considered one of the highest honours in the fields of health and medicine", said the National University of Singapore (NUS) and NUHS in a statement on Monday.

The academy aims to address critical issues in health, medicine and related policy.

An election to the academy recognises individuals who have made major contributions to the advancement of the medical sciences, health care and public health, the statement added.

Prof Wong, who is also senior vice-president of health affairs at NUS and a medical oncologist-haematologist, has been actively involved in the development of health and biomedical sciences in Singapore. He served as a member of the National Health and Biomedical Sciences Executive Committee.

He obtained his medical degree from NUS and completed his residency and fellowship at the New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center, where he was the Chief Resident in Medicine, and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

At an international level, Prof Wong is a former president of the World Health Summit and a founding member of the Association of Academic Health Centers (International).

He served on the editorial board of the Journal of the American Medical Association, the International Affairs Committee of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, M8 Alliance of Academic Health Centers, and the World Economic Forum's Global Agenda Council on Personalized and Precision Medicine.

In his 27-year career with NUS and NUHS, Prof Wong has held various leadership positions.

These include chairman of NUH's medical board; vice-president of life sciences at NUS; dean of the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine at NUS; and director of the National University Cancer Institute Singapore.

He is also the Isabel Chan Professor in Medical Sciences at NUS.

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NUHS chief executive elected to US-based National Academy of Medicine - The Straits Times

Edmonton, AB, Oct. 18, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- A new provincial collaboration has been formed to improve the long-term health outcomes, quality of life, and economic prosperity for Albertans suffering with digestive diseases. The University Hospital Foundation (UHF), Ministry of Alberta Economic Development, Trade and Tourism, and Takeda Canada through the Calgary Health Trust (CHT), have jointly invested $1.7 million into the partnership. Albertas Collaboration of Excellence for Nutrition in Digestive Diseases (AsCEND) announced the official launch today at the Western Canadian Nutrition Conference in Edmonton, Alberta. From prevention programs, to acute treatments that enhance the quality of life for survivors, this collaboration is funding cutting edge research, and taking an innovative and comprehensive approach to understand the role nutrition can play in numerous types of digestive diseases. The internationally recognized researchers are performing studies on three key gastrointestinal conditions: inflammatory bowel disease, intestinal failure, and cirrhosis. In the past several decades, prevalence of Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (IBD) has rapidly increased. Canada has one of the highest rates in the world at 1 in 360 Canadians living with the chronic disease. Dr. Maitreyi Raman is the Medical Director for the AsCEND collaboration. "There is currently no cure for IBD." said Dr. Raman. "Patients describe IBD or Crohns Disease as an inner demon thats impossible to defeat, and are bombarded with medications after diagnosis. There is potentially new hope for disease management in patients with IBD using personalized anti-inflammatory diet therapy, which improves diet quality and meets nutrient recommendations." The provincial partnership for Albertas Collaborations of Excellence for Nutrition in Digestive Diseases (AsCEND) will support education and training, post-graduate physician nutrition fellowships, and clinical patient support and development, focused on three main pillars:

"At Takeda, we are driven to make a real difference in the lives of Canadians with digestive diseases," said Gamze Yceland, General Manager for Takeda Canada. "We are excited to be part of the AsCEND collaboration which aims to make a difference through a comprehensive nutrition-based approach to achieve better health and a brighter future for Canadian patients."

"Alberta is home to world-leading healthcare and research teams in gastroenterology, nutrition, and inflammatory bowel diseases. The University Hospital Foundation is proud to be a partner in this collaboration as we know it will have a positive impact on the health of Albertans living with these conditions," said Christy Holtby, Interim CEO with the University Hospital Foundation. "Were so grateful for the support from community members through our Foundation to help fund this ground-breaking collaboration."

"This partnership is an excellent example of how collaboration between the public and private sectors, and our foundations in both Edmonton and Calgary can work together to make a transformational impact on healthcare outcomes for Albertans," added Mike Meldrum, CEO of Calgary Health Trust. "We are pleased to have the opportunity to work alongside University Hospital Foundation and Takeda Canada in bringing this opportunity to Alberta."

About the AsCEND Partners

University Hospital Foundation

The University Hospital Foundation raises and manages funds to advance patient care, research and healthcare education at the University of Alberta Hospital, the Mazankowski Alberta Heart Institute and the Kaye Edmonton Clinic. Through Strategic Partnerships, the University Hospital Foundation brings together industry, the public sector, and philanthropy to fund research and find solutions that impact the health of all Albertans. http://www.GivetoUHF.ca Government of Alberta

The Ministry of Alberta Economic Development, Trade and Tourism focuses on economic growth and diversification by supporting innovation and research; expanding access to capital for small and medium-sized enterprises; promoting trade, investment and market access initiatives; and leading Albertas negotiations on trade agreements. http://economic.alberta.ca Takeda Canada

Takeda Canada headquarters is currently located in Oakville, Ontario and is the Canadian subsidiary of Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited. Takeda Canada is delivering better health for Canadians through leading innovations in gastroenterology, oncology, neuroscience, and rare diseases. Additional information about Takeda Canada is available at http://www.takeda.com/en-ca.

Calgary Health Trust

Calgary Health Trust raises money to advance healthcare within Calgary. Funds raised benefit Foothills Medical Centre, Peter Lougheed Centre, Rockyview General Hospital, South Health Campus, many community health programs and 12 Carewest care centres in our community. For more information about Calgary Health Trust and its strategic priorities, visit http://www.calgaryhealthtrust.ca.

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ALBERTA PARTNERSHIP STRENGTHENS THE LINK BETWEEN NUTRITION AND DIGESTIVE DISEASE - GlobeNewswire

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is commonly known for its ability to have machines perform tasks that are associated with the human mind - like problem solving. However, what's less understood is how AI is being used within specific industries, such as healthcare.

The healthcare industry continues to evolve as machine learning and AI in technology become more popular in the digital age. Business Insider Intelligence reported that spending on AI in healthcare is projected to grow at an annualized 48% between 2017 and 2023.

Machine learning has the potential to provide data-driven clinical decision support (CDS) to physicians and hospital staff - paving the way for an increased revenue potential. Machine learning, a subset of AI designed to identify patterns, uses algorithms and data to give automated insights to healthcare providers.

Business Insider Intelligence reported that researchers at the University of North Carolina Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center used IBM Watson's Genomic product to identify specific treatments for over 1,000 patients. The product performed big data analysis to determine treatment options for people with tumors who were showing genetic abnormalities.

Comparatively, Google's Cloud Healthcare application programming interface (API) includes CDS offerings and other AI solutions that help doctors make more informed clinical decisions regarding patients. AI used in Google Cloud takes data from users' electronic health records through machine learning - creating insights for healthcare providers to make better clinical decisions.

Google worked with the University of California, Stanford University, and the University of Chicago to generate an AI system that predicts the outcomes of hospital visits. This acts as a way to prevent readmissions and shorten the amount of time patients are kept in hospitals.

Integrating AI into the healthcare ecosystem allows for a multitude of benefits, including automating tasks and analyzing big patient data sets to deliver better healthcare faster, and at a lower cost.

According to Business Insider Intelligence, 30% of healthcare costs are associated with administrative tasks. AI can automate some of these tasks, like pre-authorizing insurance, following-up on unpaid bills, and maintaining records, to ease the workload of healthcare professionals and ultimately save them money.

Wearable healthcare technology also uses AI to better serve patients. Software that uses AI, like FitBits and smartwatches, can analyze data to alert users and their healthcare professionals on potential health issues and risks. Being able to assess one's own health through technology eases the workload of professionals and prevents unnecessary hospital visits or remissions.

As with all things AI, these healthcare technology advancements are based on data humans provide - meaning, there is a risk of data sets containing unconscious bias. Previous experiences have shown that there is potential for coder bias and bias in machine learning to affect AI findings. In the sensitive healthcare market, especially, it will be critical to establish new ethics rules to address - and prevent - bias around AI.

The use of AI in the healthcare market is growing due to the continued demand for wearable technology, digital medicine, and the industry's overall transformation into the modern, digital age.

Hospitals and healthcare professionals are seeing the benefits in using AI in technology and storing patients' data on private clouds, like the Google Cloud Platform. AI allows doctors and patients to more easily access health records and assess patient's health data that is recorded over a period of time via AI-infused technology.

Health tech companies, startups, and healthcare professionals are discovering new ways to incorporate AI into the healthcare market; and, the speed at which we improve the healthcare system through AI will only continue to accelerate as the industry dives deeper into digital health.

In the AI in Medical Diagnosis research report, Business Insider Intelligence examines the value of AI applications in three high-value areas of medical diagnosis - imaging, clinical decision support, and personalized medicine - to illustrate how the tech can drastically improve patient outcomes, lower costs, and increase productivity.

Want to learn more about the fast-moving world of digital health? Here's how to get access:

Featured Digital Health Articles:- Telehealth Industry: Benefits, Services & Examples- Value-Based Care Model: Pay-for-Performance Healthcare- Senior Care & Assisted Living Market Trends- Smart Medical Devices: Wearable Tech in Healthcare- AI in Healthcare

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AI and machine learning are changing our approach to medicine and the future of healthcare - Business Insider India