CLEVELAND – Monday featured a big announcement during the 2019 Medical Innovation Summit, with the Cleveland Clinic and American Well revealing that they are partnering to create a joint venture (JV) focused on telehealth.

There’s a yin and yang to neoantigens, Alberto Bardelli told the audience at the 2019 annual conference of the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO) in Barcelona, Spain, last month.

WASHINGTON – In case any question remained about who shoulders the blame for the serious lack of viable innovation in the infectious disease specialty, a panel at the Infectious Disease Society of America's IDWeek 2019 came with a surprisingly accusatory subtitle: "How ID Killed Antibiotic Development." Observing what Vivo Capital Managing Partner Chen Yu called "an existential crisis for the specialty," the session served as a call for action for infectious disease (ID) doctors to take control of prescribing, put patient care ahead of cost management, and advocate for both faster changes to clinical guidelines and legislative improvements to better position the industry.

WASHINGTON – Hot on the heels of July's FDA approval of Recarbrio (imipenem, cilastatin and relebactam) in complicated urinary tract infections (cUTIs), Merck & Co. Inc. rolled out pivotal phase III data at the Infectious Disease Society of America's IDWeek 2019 that could support expanding its label to another high-need group, people with hospital-acquired or ventilator-associated bacterial pneumonia (HABP/VABP). Shionogi & Co. Ltd., which is advancing its investigational antibiotic, cefiderocol, in the same indications, also shared new phase III data supporting its use in the high-risk population.

WASHINGTON – A little more than a year after first reporting phase IIb results showing oral TORC1 inhibitor RTB-101 reduced the number of respiratory tract infections (RTIs) in older adults, Restorbio Inc. is illuminating what may be the mechanism behind its efficacy: the up-regulation of innate antiviral immunity. The data, presented at the Infectious Disease Society of America's IDWeek 2019, put the company on track to move into two phase III data readouts next year. 

BOSTON – Panelists at Biopharm America debated strategies for early stage financing as they weighed the importance of a prestigious board, the wisdom of small deals by startups with pharma firms, and the likelihood (or not) that angel investors will help make the case with other backers yet to come.

TAIPEI, Taiwan – Asian capital continues to play a key role in funding biotech development regionally and globally through private investments, M&A deals or IPOs. And 2018 was a particularly exciting one for cross-border investments and health care IPOs, said speakers at the BIO Asia conference. The total deal value of global biopharma IPOs and M&A deals hit a record $49 billion in 2018.

TAIPEI, Taiwan – Western pharma players might not be addressing diseases that are specific to or predominant in Asia, speakers said on the second day of the BIO Asia-Taiwan conference, making regional collaboration important for developing therapeutics targeting unmet needs at home.

TAIPEI, Taiwan – The three-day 2019 BIO Asia-Taiwan Conference and Exhibition opened on Wednesday to discuss how biotechnology could be the next growth engine for Asia. While figures are suggesting Asia is rising as a biotech powerhouse, the region needs to think beyond just capital, talent and patient pool, speakers said.