Earlier this year, when Astellas announced that Naoki Okamura was taking over as CEO, the Japanese company said that 2023 was the right time for it to “go on the aggressive to further stimulate growth.”It took Okamura less than a month into his tenure—which began April 1—to act on the company’s game plan. On April 29, he struck the largest acquisition in Astellas’ history, a $5.9 billion buyout of Iveric Bio. With the New Jersey-based biotech two months away from an FDA decision on its geographic atrophy (GA) eye disease candidate Zimura, Astellas hopes to become a major player in a new arena. “We had been closely watching the lead program for Iveric for a very long time, probably seven, eight years,” Okamura said in an interview with Fierce Pharma. “Because the modality of that project is very new to us, we were kind of hesitant to do any partnerships ...
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services appears to be enforcing its price transparency rule more seriously. The agency recently fined two hospitals for alleged violations of the rule. Last week, CMS issued fines to Frisbie Memorial Hospital in Rochester, New Hampshire and Kell West Regional Hospital in Wichita Falls, Texas. The former was fined $102,660, and the latter received a $117,260 fine. These fines are only the third and fourth penalties issued by CMS since its price transparency rule took effect on January 1, 2021. The other two came nearly a year ago, in June 2022 — Northside Hospital in Atlanta was fined $883,180 and Northside Hospital Cherokee in Canton, Georgia was fined $214,320. CMS’ rule aims to make hospitals’ pricing data more accessible to patients so they can compare costs and make more informed decisions about the healthcare services they choose. The law requires all hospitals to post their gross charges, payer-specific negotiated charges, de-identified minimum negotiated charges, de-identified maximum negotiated charges and cash prices on their ...
A cutting-edge surgical robot is to be installed at the Royal Papworth Hospital in Cambridge. The Versius technology mimics human arm joints but has up to four times more rotation than the human wrist. It will be used in thoracic surgery, which includes heart and lungs, in a first for the UK. The device should make the surgery less invasive, improve outcomes and speed up patients’ recovery times, the hospital said. Staff at the hospital are to undergo a full training programme, with the first treatment due to start this spring. The technology is a partnership between the Royal Papworth and Cambridge-based company CMR Surgical. The robot is smaller than previous examples and is portable so it can be used in different theatres and for different specialities, which could include transplantation. “Our vision is to provide tomorrow’s treatment to today’s patients,” said Tim ...
Caused by the highly contagious pathogen, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the feared but expected the second wave of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has already hit the UK. This can be seen in the current high prevalence of infection across the country. Thus, the virus is poised to take a high toll on the country’s public health – and ultimately many of its citizen’s lives – unless prompt containment measures are put in place, says a recent study published on the preprint server medRxiv.* The first wave of the pandemic in the UK occurred from March and April 2020, characterized by a high infection peak and then a steep and continuing decline in new infections that lasted until the beginning of August. From this point on, there has been a steady rise in infections, with the reproduction number (R) staying above 1, indicating a propagating epidemic. Increasing Prevalence ...
Several top tech companies such as Google, Amazon, Oracle, Microsoft, IBM and Salesforce have vowed to remove barriers which prevent customers from accessing their personal mHealth data whenever they need it. The announcement was made at the Blue Button 2.0 Developer Conference held in Washington D.C.
Recent news regarding pharma companies in Asia
An IPO for raising USD 115 million from public investors has been filed by Translate Bio. Proceeds garnered from the IPO will be used by Translate to trial an mRNA candidate designed to allow cystic fibrosis patients produce CTFR proteins.
The team is focusing to make Alex, the voice assistant, more convenient and useful in the health-care sector, which requires regulations and data privacy set by the HIPAA – Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. The experts are aiming to work on diabetes management, assistance for mother, infants and the elderly.
Aseptika in St Ives and Zenzium in Cheshire have been awarded an unspecified grant from the UK’s innovation agency to leverage AI and develop a new home-based early warning system for people with severe respiratory disease.
Four health systems — Intermountain Healthcare, Ascension, SSM Health and Trinity Health — and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs will launch a nonprofit generic drug company.
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