Innovation, influence and business in America's medical cities.

Nonprofit health information exchange HealthBridge has received $13.8 million in federal funding to help area health providers better utilize information technology.

Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center has been awarded an $11.7 million grant to compare the effectiveness of the three leading medications for childhood absence epilepsy.

The deal with Somaxon is P&G’s only one in which its sales reps promote a prescription drug developed by another company.

Affinity Capital Management in Minneapolis and Triathlon Medical Ventures in Cincinnati have suspended efforts to raise a $10 million early stage seed fund in Minnesota. “We’re not shutting it down, we’re putting it on pause until we can figure out what to do,” Triathlon managing partner John Rice told MedCity News.

Akebia Therapeutics Inc. has begun a Phase 2a clinical trial of its orally administered anemia drug.The company recently completed a Phase 1b trial of the drug, called AKB-6548, that showed an increase in erythropoietin, immature red blood cells and hemoglobin with “no significant adverse events,” according to a statement from the Cincinnati-area drug developer. Erythropoietin [...]

Cincinnati, Ohio life sciences company Meridian Bioscience Inc. (NASDAQ: VIVO) has acquired the outstanding capital stock of Bioline Ltd., the London, England-based maker and distributor of molecular biology reagents, for $23.3 million in cash.Meridian Bioscience also said Tuesday its profits fell 24 percent in the fiscal third quarter from a year ago, while sales fell [...]

Diagnostics company Meridian Bioscience Inc. (NASDAQ: VIVO) has received the go-ahead from the Food and Drug Administration to sell its first molecular test — illumigene C. difficile.Over the years the Cincinnati life science company has gotten good at making diagnostic test kits that detect bugs like C. difficile, which is a bacterium that can [...]

Meridian Bioscience Inc. (NASDAQ: VIVO) has struck an exclusive, world-wide product development and distribution agreement with an Italian diagnostics company that is likely to open doors to new customers in Eastern Europe and Asia.The agreement with DiaSorin S.p.A. of Vercelli, Italy, is a turnabout for Cincinnati, Ohio, diagnostic kit maker Meridian, said Todd Morrow, the [...]

Device firm Ethicon Endo-Surgery Inc. has awarded a $13.5 million grant to the University of Cincinnati and others for collaborative obesity research.The three-year grant will be used to investigate how and why gastric bypass surgery works, according to a statement from Ethicon Endo-Surgery. Gastric bypass surgery often helps patients lose weight and can also cure [...]

A research team from the University of Cincinnati has received a $2.3 million federal grant to develop a rapid diagnostic tool for detecting the influenza virus.The researchers aim to develop a library of carbohydrates that can be used to detect the presence of influenza in human samples, according to a statement from the University.The researchers [...]