What You Should Know: Eli Lilly announced an agreement to acquire Versanis, a private clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of new medicines for the treatment of cardiometabolic diseases for $1.925B in cash. Versanis' lead asset is bimagrumab, a monoclonal antibody that binds activin type II A and B receptors to block activin and myostatin signaling. Bimagrumab is currently being assessed in the BELIEVE Phase 2b study alone and in combination with
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Life Sciences | News, Analysis, Insights - HIT Consultant
Causaly Secures $60M to Accelerate AI-Powered Biomedical Research
What You Should Know: Causaly, the leading AI platform for biomedical research raises $60M in Series B funding led by ICONIQ Growth, with participation from Index Ventures, Marathon Venture Capital, EBRD, Pentech Ventures and Visionaries Club. Strategic individuals also participated in the round, including Alex Gorsky (former Chairman and CEO of Johnson & Johnson) and Olivier Pomel (CEO and Co-Founder of Datadog). The investment brings the total funding raised to $93 million,
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Israel Innovation Authority to Invest $31M to Establish R&D Infrastructure Center for Bio-Chips-Based Bio-Devices
What You Should Know: The Israel Innovation Authority announced today a NIS 113M ($31M USD) investment for the establishment of a center that will provide research and development (R&D) infrastructure for bio-devices based on bio-chips. The investment is part of the National Bio-Convergence Program.Bio-convergence represents the integration of biology and life sciences with engineering and software technologies. The investment is directed at companies dedicated to developing key
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Why PV Signal Teams Must Leverage RWD & Advanced Cognitive Computing
Signal detection — one of the most critical activities within pharmacovigilance (PV) — is the process of searching for and identifying safety signals from a variety of data sources. PV teams typically monitor safety signals for post-market products by reviewing scientific and medical literature, data obtained from clinical studies, and individual case safety reports (ICSRs). ICSRs gather data supporting reporting adverse events (AEs), product problems, and customer complaints associated
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Verily & L’Oreal Launches Diverse Skin and Hair Health Registry
What You Should Know: Today, Verily and L’Oreal announced the launch of a multi-year study, My Skin & Hair Journey, to advance precision skin and hair health. This is part of the two companies' multi-year partnership and research collaboration. The My Skin & Hair Journey registry will enroll thousands of self-identifying U.S. women to develop an unprecedented body of knowledge about perceptions and experiences of skin and hair health, including the role of lifestyle,
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Volume and Cost of Clinical Lab Tests Expected to Rise in 2023
What You Should Know: According to a new report on lab trends, the overall number of routine lab tests declined from 2021 to 2022, largely due to a reduction in COVID-19 tests. However, the number of non-COVID tests rose during the same period and is expected to continue to grow, along with overall spending on tests.The 2023 Lab Trend Report comes from Avalon Healthcare Solutions, a Lab Insights company that provides an annual evaluation of the status of U.S. clinical lab testing and an
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Abbott Receives FDA Approval for World’s First Dual Chamber Leadless Pacemaker
What You Should Know: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approves Abbott’s AVEIR™ dual chamber (DR) leadless pacemaker system, the world's first dual chamber leadless pacing system that treats people with abnormal or slow heart rhythms.Abbott’s breakthrough technology enables the world's first beat-to-beat, wireless communication and synchronization between two leadless pacemakers, which are smaller than a AAA batteryLeadless pacemakers provide a new minimally invasive option
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How to Achieve Health Equity in Decentralized Clinical Trials
Trial sponsors have made efforts to address underrepresentation and promote Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) in clinical trials since the Federal and Drug Administration’s (FDA) 2016 guidance, but a new report released by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) still shows a continuous presence of major gaps in patient diversity. It begs the question: how do we ultimately achieve full representation and ensure accountability to uphold the promises we have made for
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Flywheel Secures $54M for Medical AI Imaging Platform
What You Should Know: Flywheel, a Minneapolis-based medical imaging data and AI platform raises $54M in Series D funding, backed by tech giants including NVIDIA, Microsoft, and more.Flywheel helps organizations turn complex imaging data into analysis-ready datasets for accelerated research and AI development. Flywheel offers comprehensive solutions for pharma companies, providers, payers, system integrators, AI developers and academic medical centers to get optimum value out of
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Why Interoperability is Key to Successful Digital Pharma Solutions
We are at an interesting crossroads when it comes to pharma and digital health. Several years after the first iteration of digital patient solutions was initially launched, many pharma companies are taking a step back to strategically evaluate how they have performed in practice and the impact they have had on both patient and business outcomes. Unfortunately, many platforms that pharma companies have either integrated within existing platforms or built have failed to meet those needs – for
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