Archive: Company News
Season´s Greetings from akampion
Dear friends & colleagues,
as 2015 is coming to a close, we would like to take the opportunity to thank you for your continued support and wish you a relaxed, peaceful Christmas holiday and a Happy New Year!
Our highlights in 2015 include
- the continued expansion of akampion´s client base,
- the mandate as the lead IR/PR agency for Curetis´ successful IPO on Euronext , helping the company raise EUR 44.3 million including the exercise of the over-allotment option,
- strengthened strategic partnerships with colleagues in the U.S. to ensure optimum transatlantic communication programs for our clients,
- top-tier media coverage of our clients , including TV features (e.g. ARD Fernsehen), financial media (e.g. Wirtschaftswoche, Handelsblatt, Het Financieele Dagblad), special interest media (e.g. Private Wealth, Trends) and trade media (BioCentury, Clinica, Scrip, in Vivo, MedNous and many other national and international trade media).
We look forward to working with you in 2016 and wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Company News: Tailored Heraeus solutions for joint arthroplasty reduce the risk for infections in high-risk patients
– Latest findings on the treatment and prevention of infections presented at the Heraeus Symposium at the German Congress for Orthopaedics and Trauma Surgery (DKOU)
Medical practitioners often face particular challenges when treating infections in orthopaedics and traumatology. Particular attention must be paid to high-risk patients which include obese or immunocompromised patients or those with diabetes or cardiovascular diseases as well as smokers, severely injured patients and patients with multiple previous surgeries.
Heraeus Medical, market leader for bone cements and biomaterials for orthopaedic and trauma surgery, has been involved for years developing new solutions for infection management in orthopedics and traumatology. Especially the worldwide increase of antibiotic resistance as well as the changing bacterial spectrum of patients require continuous development of solutions to combat infections in joint replacements. This year, therefore, the company held a symposium on infection in high-risk patients at the German Congress of Orthopaedics and Traumatology (DKOU, Berlin, 20.-23.10.2015). Here two leading specialists discussed the latest findings and procedures for the prevention and treatment of infections in this particular group of patients. As experts spoke Prof. Dr. med. Wolfram Mittelmeier and Prof. Dr. med. Volker Bühren.
Patient-adapted treatment with antibiotics necessary
Both experts agreed that for high-risk patients, combined local and systemic use of antibiotics is indispensable. However, both for joint replacement surgery and in traumatology, the administration of these medications must be adapted to the particular patient as well as the bacteria present and any antibiotic resistance.
‘On one hand, long-term systemic treatment with antibiotics often leads to more complications than positive effects. On the other hand, the antibiotics must specifically reach affected tissue. For high-risk patients with scarring of the local tissue, poor blood flow or poor wound healing, systemically administered antibiotics usually do not reach the target area at all. A combination of systemic and local antibiotics is therefore the ideal solution,’ explained Professor Wolfram Mittelmeier from the Orthopaedic Clinic and Polyclinic of the University of Rostock.
‘The quality of the debridement, that is, the cleaning of the wound, is critically important for the outcome of joint replacement or revision surgery. The same is true in traumatology’, added Professor Volker Bühren, Professor for Surgery, Medical Director and Clinic Managing Director of the Murnau Trauma Centre as well as Senior Consultant in the Department of Trauma Surgery at the Garmisch-Partenkirchen Hospital. ‘Locally administered antibiotics can be used to prevent infections. However, foreign bodies such as antibiotic-impregnated PMMA beads or collagen fleece themselves act in the medium term as a culture medium for pathogens that preferentially colonize implants and surfaces. What is needed here is to improve existing systems but also to develop new carrier materials, such as ones with absorbable properties.’
Regarding infection prophylaxis, e.g. to prevent biofilm formation on an artificial joint or as an adjunct to therapy as part of infection eradication, the use of antibiotic-loaded bone cement from Heraeus Medical is an option but it must satisfy the most stringent requirements: It must not create any particle deposits in the wound and it should contain and deliver an adequately high dose of antibiotics. It must also be noted that many bacteria no longer respond adequately to the antibiotic commonly used on bone cement, gentamicin.
The solution lies in new approaches such as COPAL® bone cement developed by Heraeus Medical for revision arthroplasty. COPAL® bone cement contains optimally tailored combinations of antibiotics for anchoring implants or for use as a temporary place holder (spacer) and is primarily used in two-stage revision surgery. Heraeus Medical provides a special spacer cement characterized by reduced particle wear to prepare articulating spacers.
Heraeus Medical: A stronger focus on new solutions in orthopaedics and traumatology
Heraeus Medical will continue to strengthen its involvement in the area of new anti-infectious solutions in orthopaedics and traumatology in the coming years. Dr André Kobelt, Managing Director of Heraeus Medical GmbH explains: ‘The demands of orthopaedics and trauma surgery are becoming more and more exacting. Not only the worldwide increase in antibiotic resistance but also the individual and fluctuating microbial spectrum of the patient means that it is essential to constantly refine solutions to tackle infections in joint replacement and traumatology. Approaches that intrinsically prevent an infection are of great importance for high-risk patients. It is a major goal of Heraeus Medical to drive the developments being made in this area of medicine.’
Company News: ISA Pharmaceuticals’ ISA101 Studied in Phase II Combination Trial with Checkpoint Inhibitor Nivolumab
– Trial in patients with HPV16-positive, incurable solid tumors initiated by MD Anderson Cancer Center in collaboration with ISA and Bristol-Myers Squibb
ISA Pharmaceuticals B.V., a clinical-stage immunotherapy company focusing on rationally designed immunotherapeutics against cancer and persistent viral infections, today announced the start of a Phase II combination trial, which will be conducted at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (Houston, TX).
The goal of the open-label Phase II study is to investigate whether a combination of ISA101 with Nivolumab can help to control cancer that has spread in the body. The safety of the study drugs will also be evaluated. Nivolumab, a PD-1 immune checkpoint inhibitor, is marketed by Bristol-Myers Squibb as Opdivo for the treatment of various cancers.
The study will enroll approximately 28 patients with HPV16-positive, incurable solid tumors. Patients will receive three subcutaneous administrations of ISA101 at three week intervals, and Nivolumab intravenously every 2 weeks, beginning on day 8 after receiving the first ISA101 dose.
The primary endpoint of the study is overall response rate (ORR) at 11 weeks, defined as the sum of patients with complete response (CR) and partial response (PR) divided by the number of evaluable subjects at 11 weeks from start of treatment. RECIST 1.1 criteria will be used for assessment. Further details of the study can be found at https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02426892. The study is expected to be completed in late 2018.
Funding is being provided in part by MD Anderson’s Moon Shots Program, which was launched in 2012 to dramatically improve survival for patients diagnosed with several types of cancer over the next decade. Additional funding for the trial comes from the Stiefel Oropharyngeal Research Fund in support of MD Anderson’s Oropharynx Program, which treats and conducts research on cancers that occur in the portion of the throat behind the mouth.
The trial is open to all HPV16-related cancers regardless of organ of origin.
Company News: NEO New Oncology AG’s blood test NEOliquid finds targeted therapy for cancer patient
– Researchers from Kantonsspital Luzern and NEO New Oncology AG publish case study on patient benefiting from comprehensive blood-based diagnostics –
Researchers from Kantonsspital Luzern and NEO New Oncology AG jointly published a report in the December issue of the Journal of Thoracic Oncology describing the clinical efficacy of NEO New Oncology AG’s novel liquid biopsy assay NEOliquid.
NEOliquid is a non-invasive blood test that identifies clinically relevant, cancer-specific point mutations, insertions, deletions and gene fusions in circulating cell-free DNA down to an allele frequency of 0.1%. In addition, NEOliquid is able to detect copy number alterations in tiny amounts of circulating tumor DNA.
In the case study, conventional tissue diagnostics had not been able to detect the relevant mutation in a patient with metastatic lung adenocarcinoma, who had been extensively pretreated with EGFR-inhibitors, chemotherapy, neurosurgery, and brain radiation.
NEOliquid identified EGFR T790M conferring resistance to the previously applied drugs in a simple blood sample. As a result, the patient was treated with the third-generation EGFR-inhibitor AZD9291. The disease rapidly responded to the treatment, with both the primary tumor and metastases shrinking, and the patient’s condition improving. Follow up controls with NEOliquid every 2 weeks showed a gradual decrease of the resistance mutation in the patient’s blood over time, confirming the efficacy of the drug. As of today, the clinicians observed no clinical, radiological or genomic signs of progression, and the patient remains well and on treatment.