#Molecule that Destroys Apoptotic Cells also Repairs Damaged Axons Two new studies involving the University of Colorado Boulder and the University of Queensland (UQ) in Brisbane,
Australia, have identified a molecule that not only destroys inflammatory and apoptotic cells, but also has the ability to repair damaged nerve cells.
a funder of bioethics research. ur recommendations attempt to balance the interests of different stakeholders with the public interest in having the best information possible regarding the effectiveness and safety of therapies.
The panel defined stakeholders to include funders and sponsors, as well as disease-focused patient advocacy groups, regulators,
giving credit to the investigators who collected the clinical trial data, protecting the intellectual property interests of sponsors,
including academia, industry, funding bodies, regulatory activities, scientific publications, clinicians, and patients, the IOM said e
#Ensuring the Price Is Right for Cancer drugs The biopharma industry was rattled in 2012 when oncologists at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) refused to prescribe Zaltrap (ziv-aflibercept) for metastatic colorectal cancer due to its initial $11, 000-per-month cost.
while maintaining its official price. A year later, some 120 investigators and other experts in chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) publicly demanded lower cancer drug prices.
The group faulted high U s. prices in part on the failure of insurers and officials to negotiate drug prices with developers.
Now years of talk is finally translating into action on bringing down the price of cancer drugs.
Express Scripts, a pharmacy benefit manager that processed some 1. 3 billion U s. prescriptions last year,
recently disclosed it is in talks with several developers of cancer drugs to base the prices of several treatments on their effectiveness.
The payer won say which drugs or companies are the subject of discussions, first reported last month by The Wall street journal. Brian Henry, Express Scriptsvp,
Drug makers have resisted traditionally value-based pricing, arguing they need to recoup R&d costs. The about-face reflects the convulsive changes wrought by U s. healthcare reform
and Europe embrace of government-led value-based drug pricing. In the U k.,the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) makes formulary determinations through a ost-effectivenessthreshold assessing estimated costs of treatments or services in relation to their expected health benefits.
Germany Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health care (IQWIG) applies eference pricing setting reimbursements for new drugs at the same level as the best existing comparator unless the new drugs show superiority to that comparator;
U s. payers can be expected to approve higher prices for cancer drugs than the European agencies, in part given the greater size and affluence of the nation economy.
Yet payers should also reward developers for innovation, and for treating smaller populations, Peter B. Bach, M d.,MAPP,
Dr. Bach published a commentary in Journal of the American Medical Association supporting indication-based pricing for cancer drugs.
the price of Erbitux (cetuximab) would dip from a typical treatment cost of $14, 292 to $10, 319 for locally advanced squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the head and neck.
But for its least effective indication of first-line treatment of recurrent or metastatic SCC of the head and neck, according to Dr. Bach, the price would plunge from $42, 875 to $471. ervoy and Keytruda, theye
Under his value model, Herceptin price for metastatic breast cancer would drop from a typical $54, 118 to $905.
As for pricing rare-disease drugs higher, Dr. Bach added: dispassionate economist would say that inefficient.
But I think as a society, we want to invest to make sure that smaller groups of people aren left behind just
They can be expected to take different paths to pricing, hich means that there will not be a one-size-fits-all approach,
the U s is less likely to see drug developers offer the extent of free trials or money-back guarantees,
Numerous payers is one reason why prices set by U s. payers will likely be more palatable to drug developers than
then, will indication pricing have on cancer drug prices? ringing down the growth rate, yes. Actually reducing cancer drug prices across the board, very unlikely, Dr. Cohen concluded. n comparison to Europe, U s. prices will likely remain relatively high.
The growth rate will said shrink, he, as payer cut prices for less-effective treatmentsven after developers invest in IT systems, drug utilization programs,
The flipside of this is that the better treatments will still be commanding high prices, Dr. Cohen said.
Pricing decisions will hinge on data from providers: his is being presented as a way to manage money,
but in reality we should be doing this as a standard of care to create a continuous loop of improvement, Harry Glorikian,
Abbvie agreed to an undisclosed lower price for Viekira Pak, which lists at $83, 319 per 12-week course.
Henry said the lower price is consistent with discounts given for the drug in Europe for Sovaldi,
%In February, Gilead agreed with German insurance regulators to charge#41,000 ($45, 560 as of June 5) for Sovaldi, a 45%discount.
That price brought upon Gilead criticism from Express Scripts and three members of Congress, all Democrats in the Republican-majority House of representatives.
000-a-pill pricing by noting that the cost of Sovaldi is lower than the cost of complications associated with hepatitis C treatment, such as liver damage or liver failure.
A Congress that can do little surely cannot lower cancer drug prices as effectively as payers could.
and have had discussions with several stakeholders about alternative pricing and payment models. Our discussions about pricing
and we will not disclose discussions with specific stakeholders, Genentech spokeswoman Susan Willson told GEN. Roche has based an indication pricing system in Italy,
In a statement to GEN, Novartis said it is looking into linking payment to patient outcomes
and two other innovative pricing models: e understand that the cost of medicines can be challenging for some patients,
or provides support for their copays. The company CML medicines have been provided free to an average of 5
cautioned that some alternative pricing programs have helped developers skirt the prior-authorization rules of payers.
Representatives of two other top-selling cancer drug developers, Celgene and Amgen, at deadline had responded not to GEN queries on indication pricing
and bond very tightly to form the dimer. Dr. Mesecar and his colleagues found that the MERS protease is unusual in that it does not have a strong attraction to its identical proteases
When this bond is formed, the protease has increased an affinity for other 3c-like proteases and creates a stronger bond as it forms its dimer,
explained Dr. Mesecar. This also was the site the team was targeting with an inhibitor molecule.
allowing mutated cells to grow unchecked at the expense of surrounding tissue.""Targeting cancer metabolism has become a hot area over the past few years,
and are expected to show similar growth in revenues for the next five years. The demand for cell culture and related products is not just rising,
Working and Master Cell Banks Once a biopharmaceutical company obtains a beginning cell bank from a cell culture collection,
a master cell bank is created. It will be maintained as the source of all cells used to produce the company drug through preclinical and clinical testing and then into commercial sale.
Working cell banks are created from the master cell bank for producing batches of product. Each batch will be made by seed stock that came from either another working cell bank or the master cell bank.
Fermentation Requirements A complex set of conditions that affect cell propagation, product yield, and concentration of nutrients, waste,
In addition to the milestone payment, Merck also agreed to pay Newlink $30 million upfront, according to a Newlink regulatory filing.
The company said its R&d expense more than doubled in the second quarter, to $16. 1 million, compared with $6. 5 million in the year-ago quarter,
but primarily due to clinical trial expenses related to its pipeline of product candidates, including its Hyperacute immunotherapy cancer programs and its IDO pathway inhibitor (indoximod) programs
which saves money and resources, and a large range colors may be applied to the same surface, thereby providing more versatility to the 3d EL panels.
"It's basically how we're moving away from an oil-based economy towards something that has a renewable, sustainable future to it."
Prices range from US$1, 200 to $3, 500, depending on engine size, which can vary from a 100cc scooter to a Super Panamax ship p
The group recently received#1. 2 million (US$1. 3 million) in funding from the German Federal Ministry for Education to further development of the glasses. n this project
20150 Two Former Debt Collectors Want to Help Pay Your Medical bills May 18, 2015 i
#Asthma Could Be cured Within 5 Years With This New Breakthrough Asthma could be cured in five years
and it Will be Not-for-Profit The world first malaria vaccine has been given approval by a European medical agency for future use in Sub-saharan africa, where more than a quarter million children under the age of five die every year from the disease.
with all that money going back into further research for a malaria vaccine that could be even more effective.
(and high-priced) Whirlpool washer-and-dryer set are interested probably more in coming home to clothes that aren wrinkled than they are about saving a few dollars a year by shifting their dryer cycle to a time
or when it best fits their utility pricing program. But seamless integration between devices and utility programs is coming.
utilities will have to develop novel pricing programs that can take advantage of the devices. Chargepoint is one of the companies that also announced it is integrating its residential EV charger with the Nest thermostat h
and Wind Incentives Permanent President Obama just unveiled a $3. 99 trillion budget for 2016 that asks Congress for a permanent extension of tax credits for the solar and wind industry.
The current policy which includes an expiration of tax credits in 2017 is encouraging a boom in solar installations this year and next.
In a section titled Improving Incentives for Research and Clean energy the 2016 budget proposal includes a request for $7. 4 billion for clean energy technologies along with a shopping list of funding and incentives for the renewable sector
or enact permanent extensions of the tax credits the proposal signals that the administration will support some preservation of the solar Investment Tax credit (ITC) and the wind power Production Tax credit (PTC).
The ITC a tax credit of 30 percent of the cost of solar installations is slated to step down to 10 percent at the end of 2016.
The PTC negotiations will be part of a larger tax extenders bill coming up later this year.
when it would come up as part of a tax-reform effort. The U s. Department of energy provides about 75 percent of the clean energy technology funding.
The 2016 request is a 9 percent increase over 2015 levels. Here are the DOE programs named in the budget request:
Money to support states exceeding the minimum requirements that were established in the Clean Power Plan $2. 72 billion for energy efficiency $325 million for the Advanced Research Projects Agency,
$60 billion over ten years for students to attend community college for free $478 billion over six years for surface transportation improvements $146 billion for research and development $5 billion in start-up funding
That valuable data in states like California that are demanding that their utilities start to incorporate the growth of distributed energy into their long-range grid investment plans.
#SMA Plans Layoffs of 1600 Sending Its Stock Price to All-time Low SMA Solar, Germany's biggest solar company, is set to cut about 1, 600 jobs,
putting pressure on equipment prices and profit margins. Chicago tribune: Former Opponent Touts Nuclear power at Chicago Event Not too long ago, Carol Browner would have sided with the activists clad in white hazmat suits protesting nuclear power outside the City Club's lunch Tuesday in downtown Chicago.
Who Got What in Energy efficiency Venture capital? So it may seem like energy storage is the big star these days.
But it turns out that there were just as many energy efficiency venture capital deals last year, according to a new report.
along with green/environmental software for venture capital deals in 2014. The three each captured 8 percent of the greentech VC pie, according to the data company report, he 2014 U s. Venture capital Year in Review.
Internet software/services came in second place with 13 percent. And what was the big winner?
Beyond air quality and climate change mitigation benefits, California abundant renewable energy resources provide energy with zero marginal cost and zero fuel price volatility to our citizens,
demonstrating the limitations to system economics given today substantial supply of inflexible generation participating in the energy market.
Nowhere is investor interest in energy solutions more apparent than at the grid edge. 2014 saw a dramatic increase in venture capital and private equity investment in companies developing innovative solutions, particularly energy storage, demand
Though the amount of investment hasn returned quite to the peak reached in 2011, the number of deals and the number of vendors receiving funding is higher than ever.
which startups have received the most funding since 2010. It true that money doesn guarantee the success of a grid-edge startup.
After all Better Place raised around $850 million before closing up shop. But strong support from the VC community is an indication of a technology
But the company has combined investment and grants in official press releases, so that total is a ceiling rather than an exact figure.
though the company has been officially silent on recent investments (leaving reporters to sift through emails from fund managers).
Beyond the outliers, many of the 50-some startups developing grid storage technologies have closed on significant financing.
which requires project financing to allow the two companies to offer energy storage systems at no upfront cost.
though Aquion two-year age advantage makes a direct funding comparison with Ambri difficult. Demand-side management As the demand response market consolidates, there a high level of investment activity among home and building energy management providers.
Nest was a leader in investment raised having closed three rounds prior to its acquisition, one
of which was disclosed at $80 million. Here the next tier among the nearly 50 energy management providers receiving funding over the past five years.
Figure: Top-Funded Home and Building Energy management Startups, 2010-2014 Source: GTM Research Grid Edge 100:
The C&i energy management company has disclosed well over $200 million in investment since its founding in 2003.
Even so, several of the 40 companies receiving funding since 2010 have raised notable amounts of capital.
has continued to bring in new funding. SCIENERGY recently reemerged from stealth with new funding for software to streamline financing for commercial energy efficiency projects.
C3 has raised at least $38 million since 2010 for data analytics covering both sides of the meter.
A word of caution It important to note that analyzing VC investments is an imperfect science.
Other companies avoid VC investment entirely to insulate themselves from the expectations of outside investors.
To date, according to the U s. Department of energy Global Energy storage Database, the Brits currently have a grand total of 32 projects,
a state with similar energy requirements to the U k. But there's a push for much more. toring energy will become increasingly important in the move toward a low-carbon economy
Some argue that energy storage can help save consumers money by possibly reducing new grid buildout.
Anthony Price, director of the Electricity Storage Network, explains: The UK electricity and natural gas regulator Ofgem has calculated that it will cost £50 billion $76 billion to rewire Britain.
Price organization is lobbying for a minimum 2, 000 megawatts of new network-connected electricity storage by the year 2020.
whether the U k. government will take investment in energy storage seriously. Price notes that while the current administration is happy to ick winnersby promoting solar and wind,
the battery is designed to explore alternative revenue streams for storage, while deferring traditional network reinforcement. Numerous early-stage projects have emerged.
Highview Power won funding for a demonstration of its liquid air storage technology. REDT is developing a vanadium redox flow battery for storing wind and wave power in Scotland.
or more than a third (37%)of their stock market value from 2008 to 2013, the Carbon Tracker Initiative said.
That claim comes from a note published by Morgan stanley, in which analysts said certain dealers"would be delighted with deregulation."
The company is owned by a small group of investors. Management Innovation owns a small share
Green energy Storage has attracted already around half a million dollars of share capital and is close to securing tens of millions more, Aliquò revealed.
with no state or European union money involved. Although Aliquò wouldn't disclose of the current or future investors,
he hints:""We have attracted a lot of interest from two or three very big European companies in the energy market."
and attract additional funding, at which markets will Green energy Storage's organic flow system be aimed?
#Can $4b in Clean energy Investment Come Fast enough? The White house announced more than $4 billion in commitments at a Clean energy Investment Summit on Tuesday to scale up clean energy companies and address climate change. here not a single reason...
that by 2020 renewables can be 20 percent of U s. energy, said Vice president Joe Biden. nd that the floor, not the ceiling.
One of the reasons that hasn happened yet is because of funding limitations facing early-stage cleantech companies.
The money will come from philanthropists, universities, big banks and environmental nonprofits. The committed funds are more than double the goal of the President Obama Clean energy Investment Initiative that was announced earlier this year.
One of the key efforts will be to bring philanthropy to early-stage, high-risk and high-impact cleantech investments. nly with the private sector can we even mostly realize the possibility of this energy transformation,
said Biden. ur energy future is in cleaner, cheaper renewable energy. A new organization, PRIME Coalition, is committed to helping foundations manage the complex pipeline process of vetting candidates and helping to lower transaction costs for foundations,
as well as ensuring theye adhering to the proper tax rules. Along with PRIME, Cleantech Syndicate announced on Tuesday a merger with CREO Network to become CREO Syndicate.
The Treasury department is helping the effort to bring foundations into the fold by issuing new guidance around mission-related investments.
The Treasury will also initialize rules around program-related investments (PRIS), a type of investment via which charities can fund for-profit companies that are addressing environmental issues.
Just throwing charitable money at promising startups won be enough, however. Arunas Chesonis a telecom entrepreneur with a family foundation, gives away millions each year to projects in the energy sector.
He has found that many early-stage companies he encounters are associated facing difficulties with bringing disruptive technologies to entrenched industries. t not a valley of death;
and the disruption already happening to the electric utility industry could make the current juncture a particularly advantageous time for investors
less than 1 percent of utility revenue goes to R&d. hope there never a point of no return, Biden said of rising temperatures due to climate change,
a group of institutional investors has committed already more than $1 billion for igh-potential companies and projects for commercial investment that could also produce impactful and profitable solutions to climate change.
The second-largest investor to commit funds is the New zealand Superannuation fund. f we are to achieve our climate goals,
it is imperative that we find ways to incentivize the global capital markets to invest in clean energy,
Energy secretary Ernest Moniz said in a statement. here a moral argument, there a climate change argument,
and there an economic argument, Biden said of investing in low-carbon technologies. here a new reality.
24m has raised $50 million in private investment, adding to the $10 million raised in 2010 from Charles river Ventures and Northbridge Venture Partners with new investment from these VCS and some new strategic investors,
CEO Throop Wilder said. These include Japan IHI, a major manufacturer of jet engines, power turbines and other heavy industrial equipment;
and a third, as yet unnamed investor that working on joint development of manufacturing systems for 24m technology,
he said. e will enter at a very competitive price, but the volumes will be lower.
you need at least half a billion dollars, or at the grand scale of Tesla Gigafactory, up to 10 times that amount, he said.
The startup plans to build its utility-scale batteries in partnership with its strategic investors rather than licensing the technology itself,
24m technologies, a123, alevo, aquion, arpa-e, batteries, boston-power, energy storage, eos energy storage, flow battery, imergy, investors, lg chem, lithium-ion
as well as ounces, pounds, and tons are going to be with us for a long time.""After two decades of talk,
or whether the price will be cost-prohibitive I don't know. But I think people are going to continue to push the envelope to see how the chips could be leveraged.
Yet the challenges are such that establishing useful exascale computers some 50-100 times faster than today leadership machines requires the coordinated efforts of a vast array of stakeholders.
The agency, known for its funding of high-risk/high-payoff research in support of national intelligence,
#Obama 2016 Budget Boosts R&d, Exascale Funding On Monday, the Obama administration sent its FY 2016 budget request to Congress for the new fiscal year starting October 1.
The report says such investments are necessary to maintain US leadership in science and technology to promote sustainable growth
ES funding for exascale is the FY 2016 request for Computational Materials sciences; BER funding is for Climate model Development and Validation.
and silkworms a run for their money. The company has developed a synthetic, rogrammablealternative to larval-or arachnid-produced silk.
is prepared to scale up production to manufacture tens of millions of pounds of fabric. Bolt breakthrough represents ust the first in a wave of technology-driven products from natural materials,
said Kim and Chau. he achievements of Bolt Threads should encourage entrepreneurs and investors to look beyond their comfort zone of apps and software to support true innovation and science,
Image credit: Max Hamedi and Wallenberg Wood Science Center Via IFLSCIENC g
#Scientists create riction-freematerial US Department of energy Scientists at the Argonne National Laboratory have found a way to use diamonds
The major catch for now is that investors haven seem have joined in. Miksoza says he is need still in of private financing to actually construct the network.
He has a right-of-way from the Indian government, but doesn have the cash to make it happen. very single major invention like thishether they were cell phones
Micron3dp is reportedly seeking investors who are interested in helping them further the technology involved within these new processes w
000 in funding from the UK Government agency, Innovate UK. According to the chairman of the company, James Duez, Optalysys initial products will launch in 2017
thus permits mass production and hence lower prices that will ensure more widespread commercial use of silicon photonics.
#Over 100 banks hit by sophisticated cyberattack: report The Japan Times WASHINGTON A sophisticated global cyberattack struck more than 100 banks in 30 countries stealing hundreds of millions of dollars The New york times reported Saturday.
Citing a soon to be released report from computer security company Kaspersky Lab the newspaper said the attack involved malicious software that gave hackers long-term access to banking systems.
A group of Russians Chinese and Europeans was able to siphon off around $300 million in one of the world s largest bank robberies the report said.
The money was transferred to bank accounts around the world in small-value amounts to avoid detection.
Hackers largely focused on banks in Russia but millions of dollars were taken also from banks in Japan The netherlands Switzerland
and the United states as well The Times said. Hackers had advanced such access to the banks systems that they could force ATM MACHINES to dispense cash at specific times
and locations where hackers could pick it up p
#DIY fertility testing goes digital with Taiwan isperm Call home, check your email, count your sperm:
Taiwanese start-up Aidmics is hoping to cash in on the $40 billion global human fertility market with an ipad compatible gadget it calls isperm.
Investment advisory Harris Williams estimates the global fertility market to be worth as much as $40 billion.
The three automobile manufacturers will give careful consideration to concrete initiatives such as underwriting a portion of the expenses involved in the operation of hydrogen stations.
putting themselves in position to profit from transactions or related advertising. lthough wee still in early experiments with a limited number of retailers,
influencing nearly a trillion dollars in in store sales last year, according to Alferness. When people make shopping-related searches using Google,
results may include ads featuring uy on Googlebuttons that can be clicked to jump to pages where they can checkout using payment credentials stored in Google accounts. urchases on Google will simplify our customersability to search for items on Google and then buy with Staples,
Under Armour chief revenue officer of digital Jason Larose said in the blog post. oogle technology solutions help us innovate. interest last month dove into e-commerce with insthat let iphone
and heat up all of its water. ost of our money comes from investors, he says. e are in the process of commercialising technology that originated in Imperial College,
after years of research at the university. e have had several rounds of investment; last year, for example, we received about $35 million of additional investment,
so we have enough cash to see us through for several years of further development.
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