East Coast technology accelerator DreamIt Ventures has launched its second new program in as many months – the latest focusing on minority-led startups.

DreamIt Access will consist of five minority-led businesses in each DreamIt Ventures class from now on, starting with the summer class in New York City, said William Crowder of DreamIt Ventures. Applications for New York opened late last year and the early decision deadline is Feb. 22, followed by a final deadline of May 16.

The move formalizes a program developed last year. Last fall, the Philadelphia-based accelerator had a minority entrepreneur accelerator program sponsored by cable company Comcast that included five minority-led startups. It had two additional minority-led startups that were not sponsored in a class of 14. A sponsor has not yet been announced for DreamIt Access.

“For us, it’s all about finding great people with great ideas and one should be excluded from that,” said Crowder. “It really boils down to networks. Hopefully, programs like this can provide minority-led startups with resources to be as successful as everybody else.”

DreamIt has sought applications from digital health and medical device startups, reflecting the strong investor push into this area. A key criteria is that the company’s product can be developed within three months.

Until about a month ago, DreamIt had two accelerator classes: one in Philadelphia and the other in New York. Then last month, it launched DreamIt Israel to give up to five Israeli startups access to the United States as well as mentoring, guidance, a stipend of up to $25,000, and access to early stage capital. The four-month accelerator program splits a company’s time between Israel and New York where the start-up companies will be exposed to potential customers, partners and investors.

In return for the investment, DreamIt takes a 9 percent passive equity stake in the Israeli companies, according to DreamIt’s website. With DreamIt New York, on the other hand, the accelerator takes a 6 percent passive equity stake in the companies, according to the website.

One goal of the DreamIt Israel program, led by Mitchell Golner, is that it will lead to the development of more accelerators aimed at young startups in the software and mobile app industry developing business to consumer solutions. The program is accepting applications from residents of Israel or Israeli citizens with a final company application deadline of March 6.

Golner said in a phone interview of DreamIt Israel: “If you look at the big things of our time – Google, Facebook – all of these were started by young entrepreneurs. The US is a very large target market for any company and it has a very strong innovation spirit. So does Israel. I think because entrepreneurs from Israel and the US will be sitting in the same office there will be a good exchange of ideas.”

[Photo from Flickr user BradJacobson]

When we last heard from Foundation Radiology Group, the radiology outsourcing company had raised $1 million last November, funding that was revealed in a regulatory document.

Now the company has filed an amended regulatory document with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that indicates it’s raised another $1 million.

That’s consistent with Pittsburgh-based Foundation’s practices of not following the traditional fundraising route of discrete A, B and C rounds. Instead, the company simply raises funding as it’s needed and seems to have little trouble doing so.

Foundation’s major investors are Chrysalis Ventures and Health Evolution Partners. Foundation has raised approximately $23 million.

Although the market for advanced imaging services such as CT and PET scans is expected to experience a significant slowdown in the coming years, companies in the market say they’re not concerned. Radiology is a huge market valued at more than $100 billion annually, and market share is always ripe for the taking, so companies like Foundation figure to have no shortage of dollars to chase in the future.

In December, Foundation announced that it had added a new customer, a 117-bed hospital in Somerset, Pennsylvania.

Shire

The compromise was agreed to with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Evaluation and Drug Research, or CEDR. In exchange for Shire agreeing to the additional clinical trials to confirm the clinical benefits of the drug, CEDR has agreed to shelve its proposal to withdraw ProAmatine.

Although the company had agreed to the additional clinical trials at the end of last year, CEDR still needed to give its blessing to the agreement. By raising the stakes in getting Shire to waive its right to a hearing should the drug fail to generate results meeting with CEDR’s approval, it would seem the regulator has secured the collateral it was looking for.

Although the Irish pharmaceutical company, which has U.S. headquarters in the Philadelphia area, no longer manufactures the drug, it agreed to do the additional tests because it holds the new drug application for ProAmatine and did not want to risk the generic versions of the drug being pulled from the market.

The five generic versions currently on the market are manufactured by Apotex, Impax (NASDAQ:IPXL), Mylan (NASDAQ:MYL), Sandoz and Upsher-Smith.

For a brief history of the blood pressure drug, check out this link.

Dr. Wolfgang Oster is a managing partner for the life sciences fund at PolyTechnos, which focuses on investment in early stage, technology-oriented companies. Although the venture capital firm’s focus has been primarily on German companies, it has invested in several U.S.-based life sciences businesses. Oster worked for several years at U.S. Bioscience, which was later acquired by Maryland-based MedImmune in 1999.

Oster also serves as board member for some regional companies including Genossis, Oncoceutics and Provid.

Last month, Berwyn, Pennsylvania-based Formula Pharmaceuticals added pharmaceutical veteran Martyn Greenacre to its board and is in the midst of raising $13 million to advance its oncology therapeutic through phase 2 clinical trials.

The company’s vaccine is designed to be used during first remission for acute myeloid leukemia and other aggressive cancers.

The University City Science Center of Philadelphia earned the accreditation for its incubator’s focus on welcoming nondomestic firms into its domestic market with translation services, helping them to cut through governmental red tape, providing access to capital, domestic market research and other programs, according to a statement from the incubator association.

The Science Center’s Port Business Incubator helps international companies get a foothold in the region’s life sciences and technology markets with wet labs, work space  and access to its business support programs. It also provides specialized assistance to nondomestic firms.

The Science Center, established in 1963, is one of 23 business incubation programs worldwide to earn the designation since NBIA launched the program in 2005.

Among other organizations with the designation are the Commercialization Centre for Innovative Technologies at the Technology Centre of New Jersey in North Brunswick, the Enterprise Development Centre in Newark, New Jersey, and the Central Pennsylvania Small Business Incubator — Murata Business Centre in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

Since it introduced the Global Soft Landing Program in 2006, more than 20 companies from 10 countries have participated in the program, said Science Center President and CEO Dr. Stephen S. Tang.

Shire

Vyvanse has been approved as a maintenance treatment for ADHD. This new approval adds to the indication for Vyvanse as a treatment for ADHD in patients 6 years old and older, according to a statement from Shire.

Vyvanse was launched as a treatment for children with ADHD in the U.S. in 2007, and sales have grown since approval for adults in 2008. The drug is also awaiting regulatory approval in Europe. Shire also launched Intuniv for more difficult-to-treat children in late 2009.

The Irish company with U.S. headquarters in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, has sought to develop other ADHD treatments since losing exclusivity for Adderall to generic rivals in 2009. According to Morningstar analyst Karen Andersen, in 2008, about one-third of Shire’s $3 billion in revenue stemmed from Adderall XR.

Dr. Walter J. Koch is the director of Temple’s new Center for Translational Medicine. He also serves as a professor of pharmacology at Temple University School of Medicine and started at the end of January.

Koch developed and led Jefferson’s center since it was formed in 2003. Dr. Shey-Shing Sheu is currently serving as the interim director.

Dr. Larry R. Kaiser, the dean of Temple University School of Medicine and president and chief executive officer of Temple University Health System, said in a statement: “Under Dr. Koch’s leadership, targeted therapeutics, personalized medicine and gene therapy are just some of the areas that Temple’s new Center for Translational Medicine will be well positioned to take advantage of over the long-term.”

Temple has been expanding its services since Kaiser took over as CEO last year. It recently inked an affiliation agreement with Fox Chase Cancer Center and it restarted its heart and lung transplant program shortly after former University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine physician Yoshiya Toyoda joined Temple University Hospital as surgical director of heart and lung transplantation and T Sloan Guy became chief of cardiothoracic surgery.

Translational medicine has been a growing trend among hospitals and research facilities, which focuses on bridging the gap between basic and clinical research. It involves converting biological discoveries into drugs and medical devices that can be used to treat patients.

Auxilium Pharmaceuticals

Andrew I. Koven has been named executive vice president, chief administrative officer and general counsel. Mark A. Glickman has been named senior vice president, sales, according to a statement from the company.

The additions come as the company announced the departures of Jennifer Evans Stacey who served as executive vice resident, general counsel, and secretary; Ed Kessig, its senior vice president, sales; and Edward Arcuri, executive vice president, technical operations.

“The leadership appointments we are announcing today advance our efforts to help position Auxilium for sustainable success and the next stage of its evolution,” said Auxilium chief executive officer Adrian Adams. “Collectively, Andrew and Mark’s broad expertise and industry experience should significantly enhance our capabilities as we seek to maximize the value of Xiaflex and Testim, deliver on our current pipeline, and capitalize on future growth opportunities to achieve profitability and drive shareholder value.”

Koven previously served as president and chief administrative officer of Neurologix, a biotechnology company focused on the development of gene therapies for disorders of the brain and central nervous system. Prior to that, he was chief administrative and legal officer at Inspire Pharmaceuticals prior to its acquisition by Merck.

In December, Adrian Adams was appointed chief executive officer and president after Armando Anido agreed to step down and resigned from the board of directors. Adams previously served as chairman and CEO of Neurologix.

In October, Auxilium reshuffled its sales and marketing team to boost sales of its drug, Xiaflex, for the treatment of Dupuytren’s contracture, a hand condition affecting north European men. It is also in the phase III clinical trial stage for the use of Xiaflex to treat Peyronie’s disease, in phase IIa for its use in the treatment of frozen shoulder syndrome, and in phase Ib for its use in the treatment of cellulite. Testim is a testosterone gel.

The Malvern, Pennsylvania drug company said at the time that it would eliminate the position of executive vice president of sales and marketing in order to “speed decision making.”

Immunome, which has developed a way to clone monoclonal human antibodies that can be used to help develop more effective cancer drugs and with potential applications for rare diseases, has signed its first research and development partnership with a Big Pharma company.

The Wynnewood, Pennsylvania company’s approach differs from its competitors, says Timothy Pelura, the CEO. The traditional route to generating monoclonal antibodies has depended on using artificial systems, particularly mice. A foreign protein is injected into a mouse and its immune system reacts and makes antibodies against it. Scientists isolate these antibodies to use in developing treatments for human diseases.

The problem, says Pelura, is that this approach relies on a simple immune system.  Humans have the most complex and powerful immune system in biology.

The company, founded by Dr. Scott K. Dessain, has found a way to get monoclonal antibodies from human beings who are immune to certain diseases by nature of their immune systems, or because they have been vaccinated.

Pelura, who joined the company in 2009, says the technology has broad capabilities in therapy, diagnosis and research re-agents. Cancer has been the company’s internal focus.

“For example, many oncologists will see patients that are doing much better than they should be — like a stage 3 or stage 4 cancer patient that has been stable for three or four years and the hypothesis  is they are stable because they have been making antibodies to fight the cancer — not enough to kill it, but enough to [prevent it from advancing]. And what we have been doing is looking at these people with these antibodies in cancer.”

In the business of monoclonal antibodies, Pelura notes, there are currently 32 clinical programs studying monoclonals in cancer right now. The 32 programs are studying eight targets, i.e., the protein the antibody sticks to.

There has been a lot of competition around these eight targets, and the fact that there is such a small number of targets that companies can make antibodies toward has been an issue, Pelura says.

Pelura says with Immunome’s technology, it can look at cancer patients and the antibodies they are making to fight their cancer and discover new targets for which new therapies can be developed. It uses blood samples from relevant patients to find the antibodies. In addition to cancer, the technology could be applied to other maladies.

“So not only do we have a discovery program for therapeutics, but we have a new discovery program to develop treatments for rare diseases,” Pelura says.

“Big Pharma sees us as being able to deliver antibodies with much reduced risk — they were circulating in a human being, so we know they are safe, secure and curative by nature of our technology, so the drug companies can go into development with a much better sense of confidence.”

The company disclosed it is raising $1.5 million, according to documents filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Pelura says it will be the last fundraise by the company because it’s been able to successfully craft two deals with large pharmaceutical companies and is working on a third. The money raised will be used to increase its internal capacity to meet the needs of the partnerships it has inked.

A Pennsylvania biotechnology company is raising $1.5 million to advance its human antibody cloning technology that it believes has broad applications for the treatment of unmet medical needs such as Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, infectious diseases and bioterror attacks.

In its latest financing round, begun Jan. 4, Immunome has raised $145,000.

Dr. Scott K. Dessain, the founder and chief science officer of Immunome,  is an associate professor with the Lankenau Institute for Medical Research in Wynnewood, Pennsylvania.

The CEO of Immunome, Timothy Pelura, is a serial entrepreneur in life sciences with more than 35 years of experience in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device sectors, according to the company’s website. He has served as CEO of Promedior, a biotech company that developed therapeutics for the treatment of fibrotic disorders and diseases. He also worked at Kereos, Provasis Therapeutics, Neuron Therapeutics and Alliance Pharmaceutical Corp., according to the company’s website.

Among its investors are BioAdvance, the biotechnology greenhouse of Southeastern Pennsylvania and I Wistar Morris III, an investment banker, along with private investors.

Apeliotus Vision Science is a spinout of Apeliotus Technologies, a Georgia-based company that develops and commercializes medical devices based on university inventions. So far it has raised $450,000 in the current financing round from Ben Franklin Technology Partners and the Life Sciences Incubator of Central Pennsylvania. The company has an office in the Hershey Center for Applied Research and its chief science officer, Greg Jackson, is on staff at the Penn State Hershey Eye Center.

It hopes to market the macular degeneration diagnostic test to optometrists and ophthalmologists by the end of the year, CEO John Edwards told MedCity News in a phone interview.

Although there is no cure for macular degeneration, early detection of the disease, which generally occurs after age 50, is critical to avoid or at least delay the onset of blindness.

The disease affects 30 million people globally. Frost & Sullivan estimates the market for age-related macular degeneration is a $7 billion, though that includes diagnosis and treatment of the disease.

The technology for the test was licensed from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

The dark adaptation test for age-related macular degeneration — a test measuring the length of time it takes for the eyes to adjust to darkness — is reimbursed by health insurers, Medicare and Medicaid. That was the reason the medical device company targeted the U.S. market first, as opposed to other companies that find it easier to seek approval from European regulators first.

A New Zealand bladder cancer detection firm is opening its U.S. office at the biotechnology incubator Hershey Center for Applied Research, in a move that will add 100 jobs over three years.

Pacific Edge Diagnostics will market its bladder cancer detection test, Cx Bladder, to urologists at the end of the year, according to a statement from the company. Its 11,348-square-foot offices will be located by the technology suites — a project funded by the economic development administration of the state’s commerce department to provide subsidized lab and office suites for technology companies that is set to open in August.

The five-year-old center has a strategic partnership with Penn State University and the Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center.

HCAR currently has $2 million in capital available for companies looking to locate to its Knowledge Community incubator, according to a statement from the center.

Pacific Edge Diagnostics is the 12th company at the facility and the third from the Australia and New Zealand region.

Edward Erickson’s resignation from Saladax Biomedical in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania will be effective February 12, though he will continue to serve as a board member, according to a press statement.

Kevin Harter, the co-founder of the Life Sciences Greenhouse, will serve as interim CEO until a replacement can be found.

The greenhouse serves as a public-private partnership where Harter manages a portfolio of early-stage biotech, medical device, and diagnostic companies. Harter served as an executive chairman of Saladax from 2007-2011.

Saladax develops and commercializes novel diagnostic tests for more personalized cancer treatment as well as for new and existing therapeutics. Its dose management technology enables physicians to optimize drug dosing to meet individual patient needs, leading to improved response and quality of life, according to its website.

The transition comes at a significant period in the company’s development. Saladax Biomedical is in the midst of finalizing development of its next two oncology drug assays for paclitaxel and docetaxel. It expects to have a CE mark for them no later than the second quarter of 2012, Erickson said in an e-mailed response to questions. He added the company has not decided additional assays to complete at this time.

Last year it closed a $9 million debt facility with GE Capital.

Erickson has several years’ experience as a biotech CEO. He took diagnostics companies Immunicon and Cholestech public, along with DepoTech, a drug delivery company, public as CEO.

Martyn Greenacre has served as a CEO of Delsys Pharmaceutical Corp., a formulation and drug-delivery system company later acquired by Elan. He worked in the European division of SmithKline Beecham in several roles that included chairman for Europe. He also worked at Zynaxis. BNP Sunstone was acquired by Sanofi-Aventis in 2010.

Maurits W. Geerlings, Formula Pharmaceuticals CEO said: “His proven leadership, coupled with his extensive business and corporate development experience in the pharmaceutical industry, will be invaluable to us as we advance our lead clinical-stage program.”

Last month, Berwyn, Pennsylvania-based Formula announced it was raising $13 million in a series B financing round to move a vaccine to be used during first remission for acute myeloid leukemia and other aggressive cancers through phase 2 clinical trials.

Although median survival rates after chemotherapy range from a few months to two years, a phase 1 study showed a survival benefit of 54 months when the vaccine was added to the standard of care. If approved, the vaccine would be the first on the market to keep acute myeloid leukemia in remission, according to Dr. Giorgio Mosconi, a cofounder of Formula.

Bill Hanson was appointed chief medical information officer in 2010, when the hospital was laying down the infrastructure for many of its healthcare IT programs. Among the projects he is overseeing are the rollout of the electronic medical records system. Last year saw the implementation of EMR for outpatients and the first stage of its EMR for inpatients that included nurses’ observations along with occupational therapists’ and physical therapists’.

Now, as the project advances, data from medical devices monitoring vital signs are in the process of being added. Physicians’ observations will come later this year.

Hanson explained the complexities between digitizing outpatient records with those for inpatients. “In the outpatient environment, response times are usually not so critical; you can see a patient and then update the records on a patient’s next visit, which might not be for months or a year. “For inpatient records, where you have doctors from a variety of disciplines involved, everything needs to be communicated in real time from a minute-to-minute basis. There are a lot of moving parts and they have to mesh very well.”

A separate project, home telehealth, is aimed at high-risk patients with heart failure.  It’s a suite of electronic monitoring tools with which patients weigh themselves, take blood pressure and communicate that to a central command center, so if the data indicates they are out of the safety bounds, the health system might send a home-care nurse. Although it currently has 75 of these electronic monitoring devices, it is buying more.

Hanson said although there are about four to five major projects under way, he estimates that there are probably 30 to 40 smaller projects he is involved with. Some he likens to “nudges” to improve patient experiences, such as data analysis and display that can show the health system how it is doing on issues like readmissions, patient satisfaction with noise level and quality of food, and complications like hospital-acquired infections. “We’re trying to make as much of this data available in real time as possible,” Hanson said.

Hanson explained that although it is important for institutions like Penn to implement these changes to prepare for the future, it must tread a fine line.

“One thing we worry about from a management point of view is putting too much change out at one time. There is only so much change that a multi-workforce, multi-hospital institution can absorb before it breaks,” Hanson said. “We are always trying to find the right balance between change targeted with preparing for the future and overloading the system.”

About 35 percent of the 1,000 hires it expects to make this year will be nurses and nursing support, including nurse practitioners and physician assistants. Pharmacists with clinical experience will also be a focus, said Judy Schueler, the chief human resources officer and vice president of organizational development.

Nurses and physician assistants who tend to be focused on highly specialized areas including oncology, cardiovascular services and neurosciences are much in demand, said Schueler. “We’re leveraging those two positions in much larger numbers.”

One emerging field in healthcare is digital health, which covers a wide range of responsibilities for developing and harnessing health IT to improve patient care.  Bill Hanson was hired as the chief medical information officer for Penn Medicine in 2010. “We have grown significantly in terms of the number of people working in the IT department because we need programmers, people who interface with clinicians and helpdesk people.”

With more clinicians using various apps and portable digital devices as part of their practice, the greater the need for a team of people to service that technology.

Hanson oversees 50 -60 clinicians in full time and part time roles to implement an array of digital health projects.

“A lot of time is spent in the development of tools because there is so much in the way of clinical apps, electronic medical record (EMR) implementation, the use of the iPad for teaching. It also means more opportunities for IT staff,” Schueler said.

Job roles are also changing in line with how hospitals deliver care. The number of patient care navigators and health care assistants to help patients find the most appropriate care is growing.

“We’ll also see growth in patient safety roles,” said Schueler. “Staff will be expected to be performance improvement specialists. It’s not just about clinical licensing and certification anymore. It is about the process you go through to eliminate waste, create greater outcomes and improving patient care at a lesser cost.”

With the investment, the company is seeking to demonstrate proof of concept of its protein therapeutics in animals. It is currently in the preclinical stage.

Callidus Biopharma, based in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, was cofounded by Hung Do, the chief science officer of the company. He has 14 years of experience developing enzyme replacement therapies while he worked for Amicus Therapeutics, NovaZyme and at Genzyme, part of Sanofi (NYSE:SNY) when it acquired NovaZyme.

Do said although a handful of FDA-approved protein therapies, enzyme replacement therapies (ERTs) were developed to treat lysosomal storage diseases, the ERTs are not “optimal.” He explained that the current therapies each have deficiencies that cause only a small fraction of the therapeutic drug to be delivered to the intended tissues.

He said: “We are developing better versions of those enzymes with our proprietary technologies that address the deficiencies in current ERTs and deliver more of the therapy.”

 [Photo from flickr user GE Reports]

The grant was awarded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute’s Lung Repair and Regeneration Consortium to six institutions, including Penn, according to a statement on Penn Medicine’s website. The grant money will be distributed over a five-year period.

Lung disease is one of the leading causes of death worldwide. Cases of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease are rising. Both diseases are thought to involve a chronic injury-repair cycle that leads to the eventual breakdown of normal airway structure and function, according to the statement.

Penn’s research team will be led by Edward Morrissey, a professor of cell and developmental biology and director of the Penn Institute for Regenerative Medicine. It will seek to identify and characterize cell types that affect lung repair and regeneration, according to the statement. It will also look at developing new therapies to help patients with asthma and other airway diseases.

Photo from NIAID_Flickr

Voraxaze, made by UK-based BTG International, was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and will be marketed by the company’s U.S. office in West Conshohocken, Pennsylvania near Philadelphia.

Voraxaze is an enzyme that can reduce methotrexate levels by breaking down the chemotherapy drug to a level that can be flushed from the body, according to a statement from the FDA.

“Prolonged exposure to high levels of methotrexate can result in kidney and liver damage, severe mouth sores, damage to the lining of the intestine, skin rashes and death due to low blood counts,” Dr. Richard Pazdur, director of the office of hematology and oncology products in the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, said in a press statement. “Voraxaze is an important new treatment option for cancer patients aimed at preventing these toxicities associated with sustained high levels of methotrexate.”

Voraxaze received an orphan drug designation because fewer than 200,000 people will use the drug. There are no other drugs currently FDA-approved to clear MTX toxicity, an FDA spokeswoman said.

The most common treatment for cancer patients who suffer from kidney failure due to high doses of methotrexate is dialysis, which is associated with higher levels of morbidity, the FDA spokeswoman said.

Although BTG is handling the U.S. market for the drug, it is looking for partners to commercialize the drug in other countries and “who would be able to complete the final development,” according to its website.

Penn Medicine is holding an “innovation tournament” for staff and faculty to propose ideas to improve the patient experience throughout its health system.

In a phone interview with MedCity News, Judy Schueler, Penn Medicine chief human resources officer and vice president of organization development, said the competition is scheduled  for a February 7 kick off.

Faculty and staff at the Philadelphia health system will submit ideas through the Web, e-mail or idea boxes with the contest culminating in a town hall meeting in which competitors will pitch their ideas to a panel of judges representing Penn Medicine’s leadership.

“Like American Idol does for aspiring singers or March Madness does for college basketball teams seeking the national championship, “Your Big Idea: Penn Medicine Innovation Tournament provides a structured competitive environment for ideas from Penn Medicine’s faculty and staff to be evaluated, and potentially developed and funded,” a presentation on the competition read.

In the first round of the competition in March, ideas will be presented to users randomly on a website. A five star rating system like that on Yelp’s website will be used in the judging. The top 15 percent to 20 percent will go on to compete in workshops in which participants will hone business plans with proposed budget and cost-benefit analysis in April. The top 10 contestants advance to the third round in which they pitch ideas to Penn Medicine’s leadership in a town hall setting in May that will be open to Penn Medicine employees. The winning ideas will get funding and resources for implementation.

Penn Medicine has carried out two pilot programs to test the innovation competition format. For its department of anesthesiology and critical care, the goal was to improve the quality and efficiency of clinical care delivery. The Abramson Cancer Center sought ideas to improve staff learning, patient satisfaction and financial performance.

“We have selected a broad theme to generate lots of ideas. We [also] wanted to provide an opportunity for physicians to participate,” said Schueler. “I think this can be a game changer and I’m excited about that.”

The competition underscores the pressure healthcare systems are under to cut costs while improving patient care as the provisions of the Affordable Care Act kick in over the next few years.

Bioconnect Systems CEO Adam Dakin told MedCity News in a phone interview that the fresh capital would take the company through clinical trials, U.S. regulatory approval  and commercialization. The Ambler, Pennsylvania-based company’s Optiflow Vascular Anastomotic System is designed to enhance a surgeon’s ability to create precise vascular connections, aiding the creation of an arteriovenous fistula for vascular access in hemodialysis patients.

The Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services have been strong advocates for fistula dialysis access and launched the Fistula First initiative in 2003. It described the procedure as “the ‘gold standard’ for establishing access to a patient’s circulatory system to facilitate dialysis.

Although catheters are widely used with dialysis, they are associated with a greater risk of infection. In a recent survey of Pennsylvania hospitals they were one of the top sources of hospital-acquired infections — something healthcare facilities are aggressively trying to reduce.

“[Fistulas] last longer, need less rework and are associated with lower rates of infections, hospitalization and death for Medicare beneficiaries than other types of access,” said CMS administrator Dr. Mark B. McClellan on the Fistula First website.

Dakin noted that one challenge with the procedure has been that outcomes “vary greatly.”

He said: “One of the goals of [our] device is to create more consistent, more repeatable results.”

The company received a $500,000 investment from Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania last year. Cardinal Partners and Fidelity Biosciences have also invested in Bioconnect Systems — each have a seat on the company’s board.

Chrissy Rivera’s post described a meeting last week between herself, her husband Joe and a physician and social worker at the hospital about getting a transplant for their 3-year-old daughter Amelia who suffers from Wolf-Hirschhorn Syndrome, a rare genetic disorder that causes delays in growth and development. The blog post was made on a website that acts as an online community for people with Wolf-Hirschhorn Syndrome.

More than 500 comments have been posted on the page that range from sympathetic supporters of the family to posts criticizing the hospital and how it has handled the issue to parents of former patients praising the hospital’s work. Some parents have shared anecdotes of how other hospitals have dealt with similar issues.

Although the hospital’s initial statement in response to the comments was to acknowledge the impassioned comments on its page, it began that it could not comment on individual cases:

To our Facebook community:

We hear you.

We feel and understand your frustration, but we are unable to comment publicly on individual cases.

To see the rest of the statement click here.

It later updated the statement with a new paragraph expanding on its treatment of transplant candidates:

We have continued to watch the comments regarding criteria used in making transplant eligibility decisions with great concern and have updated our below statement with the following information about CHOP’s position on organ transplantation at CHOP:

“The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia does not disqualify potential transplant candidates on the basis of intellectual abilities. We have transplanted many children with a wide range of disabilities, including physical and intellectual disabilities. We at CHOP are deeply committed to providing the best possible medical care to all children, including those with any form of disability.”

Breast cancer cells

A Philadelphia health IT company with software aimed at helping oncology patients decide more suitable, personalized cancer treatments has changed its name to reflect the decision-making platform it began marketing last year and to aid its national expansion.

Eviti, formerly known as ITA Partners, started as a case manager for cancer treatment 10 years ago, but has evolved into a health IT company. Its clinical-decision, web-based software, eviti, aggregates data on cancer types, proven cancer treatment options and clinical profiles to provide more personalized treatment options and reduce inefficiencies and costs.

The software is aimed at payers and physicians in their conversations with patients and is being pushed out to nurse case managers. A patient portal will be developed in the future, Susan Spalding, a spokeswoman for the company, told MedCity News in a phone interview.

Forty percent of the time there’s some element of a cancer treatment that does not meet acceptable standards, said Spalding. “We were often receiving referrals after the cancer treatment had already started because most payer organizations don’t require the treatment to be pre-certified — [the treatment] could start whether the provider would pay for it or not. ”

The company launched the eviti software program in October 2009 and it became commercially available in October last year. An app for the software is also being developed, Spalding said.

“Our customers have come to associate eviti with quality oncology treatment intelligence,” said Eduardo Beruff, CEO of eviti in a statement. “This name change reflects eviti’s growing national prominence as evidenced by the 4,200 oncologists already registered to use the eviti platform.”

Dr. Craig Thompson was the scientific director of the Leonard and Madlyn Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute from 1999 to October last year, when he “terminated his employment,” according to the complaint.

The complaint, filed in federal court in New York,  alleges that Thompson, who oversaw and managed the institute’s cancer cell biology program, fraudulently misrepresented the nature and results of his work on cancer metabolism research at the institute to avoid meeting disclosure requirements. It also alleges that Thompson stole the institute’s intellectual property on cancer metabolism and used it as the basis to form a for-profit company that later became Agios Pharmaceuticals, without informing the university.

Agios and Celgene (NYSE: CELG) are also named as defendants in the lawsuit filed last month. Agios and Celgene formed a strategic collaboration in 2010 to work on cancer metabolism, the complaint said. Thompson is listed on Agios’ website as one of three co-founders of the company.

In an e-mail sent through his lawyer Thompson said: “The allegations in this lawsuit are unfounded and without merit. It is unfortunate that the Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute has chosen to go down this path.” according to a PharmaLive article.

Nuron Biotech acquired the vaccine from Wyeth, a subsidiary of Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) in January of last year. Wyeth stopped making the vaccine in 2004, according to a spokesman for the Exton, Pennsylvania-based biologics and vaccines company.

Currently, the market for Hib vaccines is dominated by Big Pharma companies Sanofi and Merck. GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE:GSK) is taking another crack at developing a Hib vaccine. Nuron Biotech wants to expand its markets for the vaccine and is relicensing the vaccine for the U.S. market — a move that requires approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

“The HibTITER vaccine still represents a considerable global opportunity, especially in markets like Japan, where there is only one approved vaccine for Haemophilus influenza type b (Hib) bacteria, which is a potential life-threatening illness,” said Shankar Musunuri, CEO and founder of Nuron Biotech, in a press statement. “This agreement provides us with additional resources to accelerate our relaunch strategy of this first-in-class vaccine in the U.S. market.”

The Hib vaccine is one of several drugs that have experienced shortages in recent years. In 2007, a shortage of Hib vaccine caused alarm when Merck announced a recall of the drug. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 1,000 to 3,000 cases of meningococcal disease are reported annually in the United States.