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Food for Thought: Crowd-funding – A Useful Financing Strategy for Healthcare Companies?
Crowd-funding is a widely discussed and disputed financing approach these days. It has proven to work in many industries, including the entertainment sector. But what implications will it have for the healthcare industry? Will it have any impact on healthcare at all?
So far, there are only few examples of crowd-funded healthcare ventures. One of them is the Rare Genomics Institute, a US-based non-profit organization dedicated to providing better and faster diagnostics and therapies for rare diseases. They decided for a personalized approach by putting up individual cases of rare disease sufferers on their website and organizing funding for the diagnosis and treatment of the affected patients. Thereby, Rare Genomics Institute provides treatment opportunities for patients who otherwise would not be able to pay their medical bills, as these kind of therapies (and diagnostics) are usually not funded by healthcare providers.
What seems to work as a fundraising approach for individual cases in the US still has to prove its viability in other regions of the world – and in a larger healthcare context. Could expensive drug development eventually be financed by crowd-funding? According to an article in Genetic Engineering News, there is currently not much evidence that biopharmaceutical companies could benefit from crowd-funding, as their financing requirements are significant and long-term oriented. In fact, there are only very few examples of biopharmaceutical companies which have managed to close a financing by crowd-funding, e.g. cancer immune therapy company Urodelia (France). However, the financing volume has not been disclosed. Others, like AMD Therapy (Germany), a fund dedicated to finance the development of novel therapeutics to combat age-related macular degeneration, or Selexel (France), which is developing cancer therapies based on RNA interference, are still raising funds. Interestingly, AMD Therapy aims to raise as much as EUR 60 million by crowd-funding – much more than other biopharma companies in Europe were able to raise by private equity financing during the past 12 months.
At the end of the day, many questions are still unanswered. Will private sponsors continue to be willing to pay a stranger´s medical bills in the long run? Will start-up healthcare companies financed by crowd-funding eventually have to fulfill strict reporting and transparency requirements?
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Company News: Curetis AG to Present Its Unyvero™ System for Pneumonia Diagnostics
– Demonstration supported by symposium on bacterial pneumonia and emerging antibiotic resistance at the 22nd European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) –
Curetis AG, an innovative molecular diagnostics company focusing on the development and commercialization of in-vitro diagnostic products for infectious diseases, today announced the presentation of its Unyvero™ System and the Unyvero™ P50 Pneumonia Cartridge during the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) in London.
The showcasing will be accompanied by the Curetis-sponsored Integrated Symposium “Bacterial Pneumonia and Emerging Antibiotic Resistance”, which will focus on pneumonia-causing pathogens, their respective antibiotic resistances, and the relevance of multiplexed molecular diagnostic testing. The event will be chaired by clinical microbiologist and molecular diagnostics specialist Prof. Christine Ginocchio (North Shore-LIJ Health System School of Medicine, New York), and Prof. Keith Klugman (Emory University, Atlanta), the world’s premier expert on antibiotic resistance among pneumococcal bacteria.
The Unyvero™ System is a versatile hardware platform for the detection of a broad panel of bacteria and antibiotic resistances from a single sample in one run. It processes a disposable cartridge providing the necessary reagents to complete the analysis from sample to report. The Unyvero™ P50 Cartridge is the first cartridge developed by Curetis AG and focuses on pathogen as well as antibiotic resistance testing for pneumonia. Each cartridge handles one patient sample and simultaneously analyzes 39 DNA targets. Results are available within less than 4 hours.
Company News: Aleva Neurotherapeutics Expands Board of Directors
– Entrepreneur Martin Velasco and Industry Expert Scott R. Ward Appointed as Board Members –
Aleva Neurotherapeutics, a company developing next-generation implants for Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) in major neurological indications such as Parkinson´s disease or depression, today announced the expansion of its Board of Directors. Martin Velasco, a seasoned entrepreneur and business angel, and Scott R. Ward, advisor and former Senior Vice President and President, CardioVascular at Medtronic, were appointed as members of the Board of Directors.
Martin Velasco is an entrepreneur and business angel with extensive experience in the IT, medical and biotech industries. He is the co-founder and former CEO of SpeedLingua, a company developing and marketing solutions for language learning. In addition, he has co-founded various technology companies and serves as a board member of several high-tech and healthcare firms including Anecova, Sumerian, AC-Immune, Cocomore, and Aridhia. Moreover, Martin Velasco is Vice President of the Board of the Foundation EPFL+ and Vice Chairman of the European Tech Tour Association. He has received numerous prestigious awards for his activities as a business angel.
Scott R. Ward is President of Raymond Holdings, LLC, a firm focused on the life sciences with activities in venture capital, corporate strategy, and transactional advisory services. From 1981 to 2010, he has held various senior management positions at Medtronic, Inc. with increasing responsibility, including Senior Vice President and President, Vascular and CardioVascular, Senior Vice President and President Neurological, Gastroenterology, Urology and Diabetes, and President Neurological Business. Mr. Ward is Chairman of the Board of MAP Pharmaceuticals, iScience Interventional and Gillette Children’s Specialty Healthcare. He also serves on the Board of Creganna-Tactx Medical, Respircardia Inc., and Surmodics, Inc.
André Mercanzini, co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of Aleva Neurotherapeutics, has stepped down as a board member of Aleva. The founders have elected Scott Ward as their representative. Markus Hosang of Biomedinvest AG and Juerg Eckhardt of Bellevue Asset Management AG continue to serve as members of the Board of Directors, which is chaired by Oern Stuge, MD. Mr. Stuge has a long-standing management track record with healthcare companies such as Medtronic Inc. and Abbott Laboratories Inc.
Company News: InDex Pharmaceuticals Develops Companion Diagnostic Test for New Ulcerative Colitis Therapy
– Personalized treatment option for patients with refractory ulcerative colitis –
InDex Pharmaceuticals today announced the development of a companion diagnostic test for Kappaproct®. Kappaproct, the lead product candidate of InDex, is currently in a phase III study as a treatment for chronic active, treatment refractory ulcerative colitis. In this study, the companion diagnostic test is being evaluated to demonstrate a correlation between test result and clinical response to Kappaproct.
In previous clinical trials, Kappaproct has shown positive effects for the treatment of steroid resistant ulcerative colitis patients. The companion diagnostic test aims to enable the pre-selection of steroid resistant patients that are most likely to benefit from Kappaproct. The proprietary in vitro test is based on a number of biomarkers and is performed on a blood sample prior to administration of Kappaproct.
A companion diagnostic is designed to assess whether a patient will respond favorably to a specific medical treatment or not. Companion diagnostics are a crucial element of personalized medicine, which is becoming increasingly important along with the demand for safer and more efficacious medicines. Companion diagnostics also reduce healthcare costs as the use of ineffective therapies can be avoided.
In 2009, InDex Pharmaceuticals launched the diagnostic test DiBiCol® in Sweden. DiBiCol differentiates between ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn’s disease (CD), the two major forms of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).