Medcity News

A GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE: GSK) drug used to combat nausea in cancer patients can cause an irregular heart rhythm in certain doses, according to a safety alert issued to healthcare professionals and the public by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The British drugmaker had recommended to the FDA the removal of the 32 milligram, single intravenous dose of Zofran from its product label, a spokesman said. The FDA is reviewing and at some point will accept or reject the drugmaker’s recommendation. Zofran was found to affect electrical activity of the heart and create the potential for patients to develop...

Here’s even more evidence of the white-hot digital health market: A look at 2012 so far shows more companies are scoring larger investment deals in the space. A new report by healthcare accelerator Rock Health that gathered all the digital health companies receiving at least $2 million in investment shows those deals are up 73 percent at this point compared to 2012.There’s been a total of $675 million in digital health investments through June, compared to $390 million at this point last year. It’s not just the deals that are up but the companies, too. In all of 2011,...

At least 68 digital health companies have raised $2 million or more so far this year for a total of $675 million in digital health investments, according to a new report by healthcare accelerator Rock Health. Look closer, though. Five companies accounted for nearly 40 percent of those total dollars. It’s clear that patient shopping tools and home health technologies are where the big bets are going. Here’s the breakdown of the Big 5 deals. 1. Castlight Health: $100 million. Castlight is creating digital tools that help patients find doctors, learn how good the practitioners are and get to...

At least 68 “big” deals — investments of at least $2 million — have been done in digital health so far in 2012, according to a new report by the healthcare accelerator Rock Health. Nineteen states were in on the action. Not so surprising, California lead the way in both the number of deals done and the overall investment. And traditional healthcare investing strongholds like Massachusetts were among those that did the most deals. But there were lesser known regions involved as well that invested significant dollars and did a notable number of deals, namely Texas, Illinois, Georgia and...

If recent industry-sponsored studies–no matter how poorly designed–are to be believed, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration will pretty much regulate the medical device industry into oblivion. Yet, whatever concerns people have about the FDA, real and imagined, people still are solidly bullish about the global prospects of the medical device and diagnostics industry. A new survey of 125 medtech executives found that 91 percent of them expected an increase in the compound annual growth rate in the next three years. The survey responses represented 89 companies in 16 countries. “What did surprise us was the bullishness of the...

Over the next few years, we’ll likely be seeing more stories about things like Merck’s $90 million translational research center for scientists, entrepreneurs and venture capitalists; Sanofi’s partnership with Third Rock Ventures to launch a new biotech company; and Johnson & Johnson, GSK and Index Ventures’ new fund. That’s because open innovation and cooperation in the pharmaceutical industry will continue to gain traction as patent losses and R&D cutbacks force drug companies to look outside of their own walls for promising technologies, according to a new report from GBI Research. Pharma has become more receptive to cooperative alliances, partnerships...

A New York-based serial entrepreneur is preparing to launch a crowdfunding website focused on innovation in healthcare in what its founders hope will provide an alternate funding source for companies that might otherwise not get it from angel and venture investors. The new company’s creation follows the passage of the JOBS Act, intended to create more jobs by making it easier to start and fund new companies. A provision of the JOBS Act enables startups to raise as much as $1 million through crowdfunding and award equity to nonaccredited investors. MedStartr co-founder and CEO Alex Fair, who also is...

GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE: GSK) and the American Diabetes Association have launched a $1.5 million research award, coinciding with the start of the annual Scientific Sessions diabetes conference in Philadelphia from today through June 12. The award will fund research grants focused on developing a better understanding of the impact of changes in diet, lifestyle and therapeutics on the microbiome — microbes, people’s genetic data and their environment. Of special interest is the role it plays in metabolism, according to the ADA statement. The award will be given in the form of research grants exploring the relationship between nutrition, the microbiome...

Before digital health entrepreneurs start a company, they have to decide two important things: who will use their product, device, or app and who will pay for it? To help weigh the merits and challenges of these business models, a report from Rock Health provides some common sense and some surprising realities about investment trends for each. So before you decide whether you want to build the next ZocDoc or Practice Fusion, have a look at some of the findings of Rock Health’s report on Business Models in Digital health. B2B Seventy-seven percent of digital health venture funding went...