Novartis announced today that is has entered into an agreement to acquire AveXis, Inc., a clinical stage gene therapy company for $8.7 billion in cash. AveXis lead product candidate, AVXS-101, has potential to be first-ever one-time gene replacement therapy for spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), a disease which results in early death or lifelong disability with considerable healthcare costs. It is estimated that one out of every 6,000-10,000 children born is affected by some form of SMA.The US Food
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Startups| Digital Health | | Health IT News, Analysis, Insights - HIT Consultant
AMA and Google Launch Healthcare Interoperability and Innovation Challenge to Foster Data Sharing
The American Medical Association (AMA) and Google are teaming up to launch the AMA Health Care Interoperability and Innovation Challenge. Sponsored by Google, the challenge aims to inspire novel examples of mobile health technology - such as wearable devices and applications - that effectively monitor and share medical data between patients and physicians to improve the management of chronic diseases.“The AMA is working to unleash a new era of patient care through its Integrated Health Model
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TruSense Releases Amazon Alexa Integrated ‘Smart’ Personal Emergency Response Pendant
TruSense, a smart home monitoring solution designed for seniors, has added the first-ever smart personal emergency response (PERS) pendant to combine GPS with notification when it is not being worn. Made to alleviate caregiver worry, the pendant works in conjunction with TruSense Home, a sensor-based smart home solution. This allows for customized alerts when the user is not wearing the pendant, extending protection outside of the home.Customized alerts can notify caretakers when the wearer has
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Vitra Health Nabs $45M to Reverse Type 2 Diabetes
Virta Health, a San Francisco, CA-based company delivering the first clinically-proven treatment to safely and sustainably reverse type 2 diabetes (T2D) and other chronic metabolic diseases without the use of medications or surgery has raised a $45 million Series B funding round. THe round include participation from existing investors including Venrock, Obvious Ventures, Creandum,Caffeinated Capital, and Max Levchin’s SciFi VC, along with new investors including Founders Fund and Playground
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Ferring Acquires Microbiome Platform Rebiotix
Ferring Pharmaceuticals, a research-driven, specialty biopharmaceutical group has acquired Rebiotix Inc., a late-stage clinical microbiome company focused on harnessing the power of the human microbiome to transform the treatment of challenging diseases. This acquisition brings together two innovative healthcare companies that share a common commitment to exploring and understanding the human microbiome to develop new solutions for patients. Rebiotix’s RBX2660 is a non-antibiotic treatment in
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SCI Solutions Acquires Digital Patient Engagement Company DatStat
SCI Solutions (SCI), a patient access and care coordination software company has acquired DatStat, a provider of patient engagement and digital health tools. The combination of SCI’s market-leading patient scheduling, referral management and revenue cycle software with DatStat’s digital self-service tools for pre-visit preparation, secure messaging, visit summaries and care plans, creates a complete patient access and engagement solution for patients to conveniently connect with their care teams
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Paperless Productivity Acquires WiseCLAIM to Expand Presence in Healthcare Claims Automation Market
Paperless Productivity, a workflow automation consultancy and systems integrator, has announced its acquisition of the WiseCLAIM platform from WiseTREND. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. WiseCLAIM was developed in response to the continued prevalence of paper CMS claims forms among healthcare payers, Third Party Administrators (TPAs), and billing services. By automating data extraction from CMS/HCFA/UB forms, it has become an integral tool for mid-market and large firms in
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Welltok Raises $75M to Expand Health Optimization Platform into New Markets
Welltok, a health optimization platform for consumer health, announced today that it raised $75 million in a Series E2 funding round with participation from new and existing investors including New Enterprise Associates, Bessemer Venture Partners and Georgian Partners. Participants in the funding round include new investors Future Fund Management Agency, Ziff Davis, NF Trinity Capital (Hong Kong) Limited and ITOCHU Corporation.The latest financing round will carry Welltok through its next phase
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Rock Health: Digital Health Funding Brings in Record $1.62B in Q1 2018
Digital health funding has reached a record breaking $1.62 billion in Q1 2018 across 77 digital health deals, according to Rock Health, a full-service venture fund dedicated to digital health.The Q1 2018 Rock Health report reveals investors are starting to become more confident investing in large, late stage round with the top 10 deals, representing over 55% of total funding—but only 13% of deals—in the quarter. In addition, the average deal size increase from $16.4M in 2017 to $21M in 2018.The
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HGS Acquires AxisPoint Health to Strengthen Clinical Services Segment
AxisPoint Health announced it has been acquired by Hinduja Global Solutions Limited (HGS), an international leader in business process management services. Backed by HGS, AxisPoint Health will continue to operate independently and further grow its care management services, including a 24/7 nurse advice line, and powerful tools for member identification, stratification and reporting. This acquisition follows last year’s acquisition of AxisPoint Health’s software platform by Medecision. AxisPoint
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