Varex Imaging Corporation announced it will showcase its digital detectors, X-ray imaging tubes, connect and control devices and software solutions at Medica 2019. Medica is attended by leaders in the fields of business and research, and international experts and decision-makers from the medical sector covering the entire spectrum of innovations for outpatient and clinical care.

Varex will also promote its ‘Local for Local’ campaign at Medica 2019 and introduce the company’s Service Solutions Group, which has been developed to provide local service to our customers with increased local X-ray tube and digital detector manufacturing and the aim of being global partners for local business.

“Our aim is to bring innovative X-ray imaging components to imaging systems manufacturers and we want to make that as easy as possible for our customers. By establishing local commercial relationships, delivering local service and support, and sourcing from local suppliers we can be a global company and offer enhanced service capability that is local, hands-on, responsive, and easy to reach” said Sunny Sanyal, Chief Executive Officer of Varex Imaging Corporation.

At Medica 2019, Varex will be highlighting its service and support and European customer experience by:

• enabling on-time delivery for common X-ray tube types in the radiological range of key brands
• providing technical support, evaluations and repairs of Varex digital detector flat panels/X-ray tubes at the company’s service centre in Willich, Germany
• giving access to local expert technical support for CT software, Nexus trainings and inquiries about X-ray detectors and tubes

Varex will be displaying a selection of their extensive portfolio of real-time digital X-ray imaging flat panel detectors (FPDs) at Medica 2019. Varex FPDs are developed using a variety of imaging technologies – amorphous silicon, CMOS and IGZO, which provide different benefits ideally suited to specific medical applications. For Surgery, Varex is showcasing 2020DXV/2121DXV and 3030DXV which are cost-efficient, high performance panels for Image Intensifier replacement. The company is also introducing the Varex Z platform which offers a new performance level with higher resolution and improved low dose performance over Amorphous Silicon, but without the cost burden of CMOS.

Varex Z platform is based on IGZO technology and is very suitable for fluoroscopy applications with their bright scintillators, new electronics and fast interfaces. For Radiography, Varex will be showcasing its complete range of high value (2530W, 4336Wv4, 4343W) and high definition (XRpad2 3025, XRpad2 4336, XRpad2 4343) wireless panels. The Varex team of imaging experts will be on hand at the Medica 2019 to advise customers on technology and packaged component solutions that are most suitable for their application; be it Radiography, Mammography, Fluoroscopy or Computed Tomography (CT). Varex Imaging will be providing Solutions in Sight™ at Medica 2019.

About Varex

At Varex, we aren’t just a supplier to our customers. We aim to be an extension of their teams; a partner in their success; a solution to their problem. Our goal is to enable our customers to become world-class system suppliers by strengthening their competitiveness and enabling them to bring products to market faster. Our rich history spans 65+ years of dedication to the imaging industry. Our knowledge, our people, and our innovation make us who we are. At Varex, we are Solutions in Sight™. For more information about Varex visit: www.vareximaging.com.

PAVmed Inc. , a highly differentiated, multi product medical device company, announced the Company and its newly formed subsidiary, Solys Diagnostics Inc.  have entered into definitive license and shareholder agreements with Airware Inc. and its newly formed subsidiary Liquid Sensing Inc. (“Liquid Sensing”), to develop and commercialize non-invasive diagnostic products using Nondispersive Infrared (NDIR) laser technology developed by laser technology pioneer Dr. Jacob Wong, founder and Chief Executive Officer of Airware.

Dr. Wong’s NDIR laser technology, secured by intellectual property covered under the license agreement, promises to fulfill a decades-long goal of noninvasively measuring glucose, electrolytes and other important biochemical substances in patients, without the need for blood draws, needle sticks or other invasive maneuvers. These technologies have broad applications and large market opportunities in both inpatient settings, where millions of patients undergo frequent blood draws to monitor glucose and other substances, and outpatient settings, where tens of millions of patients use multiple finger sticks daily to manage their diabetes.

“For over fifty years, I have dedicated my professional life to improving the human condition through laser technology,” said Dr. Wong. “Twenty-five years ago, my colleagues and I first sought to tackle the unique challenges of using lasers to detect molecules, including glucose, in liquid and tissues. We have now honed the technology to the point where accurate, commercially viable, noninvasive measurement of blood glucose is around the corner. We are very excited to have found an ideal development and commercialization partner in PAVmed and look forward to being able to offer this technology to patients in the near future.”

“We are proud to partner with Dr. Wong and his team to develop and commercialize revolutionary, non-invasive laser-based diagnostic products, based on proprietary technology and proven results in established scientific models,” said Lishan Aklog, M.D., PAVmed’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. “Dr. Wong has been a legend in the field of infrared laser technology since completing his doctorate under Nobel Laureate and Stanford Professor Arthur Schawlow, the co-inventor of the laser. His scientific and commercial impact across multiple industries includes groundbreaking laser-based products for Hughes Aircraft, a predecessor of General Electric Sensing and Hewlett-Packard’s healthcare division.”

“This is PAVmed’s third such partnership with world-class innovators following our licensing of EsoGuard/EsoCheck and DisappEAR,” added Dr. Aklog. “It also falls squarely within our long-term strategy of being opportunistic, but highly selective, in expanding our portfolio with groundbreaking technologies, addressing large unmet clinical needs with low regulatory hurdles, allowing us to access large market opportunities with modest capital investments.

“The partnership provides PAVmed an immediate opportunity to quickly and efficiently develop and commercialize inpatient applications of Dr. Wong’s NDIR technology – most notably a device to noninvasively measure blood glucose using a clip on the hand, just as easily as now-ubiquitous pulse oximetry devices noninvasively measure oxygen saturation levels. Neither the initial joint development work, which is scheduled to take less than six months, nor subsequent regulatory and development work to create a first commercial product, will materially impact our overall budget. Upon completion, I expect several large companies active in the critical care monitoring space to have a strong interest in acquiring or partnering with us on the commercialization of such a product.

“Future inpatient applications within the scope of the license agreement include devices to noninvasively measure electrolytes and other common biochemicals in inpatients, without the need for daily blood draws. Finally, for no additional investment of capital, PAVmed has secured meaningful participation in the future commercial success of outpatient applications of the technology developed by Liquid Sensing, including the holy grail in this field – replacing diabetic finger sticks or continuous needle-based glucose monitoring (CGM) with a portable or wearable non-invasive blood glucose device. PAVmed has also secured an exclusive option to expand its interest in Liquid Sensing at its sole discretion through a right of first offer on future investments,” Dr. Aklog concluded.

Continuous insulin infusions, which typically require hourly blood glucose measurements to optimize control and avoid serious complications, have become a mainstay of modern intensive care. Dr. Marc W. Gerdisch, internationally recognized heart surgeon and Chief of Cardiovascular Surgery at Franciscan St. Francis Health in Indianapolis described the clinical potential of the Solys technology as follows:

“By protocol, one hundred percent of my patients, and the hundreds of thousands of patients who undergo heart surgery each year, are placed on a continuous insulin infusion starting in the operating room and continuing for a period of 24-72 hours during which we check their blood glucose every hour. My patients complain bitterly about being awoken every hour throughout the day and night for finger sticks. A noninvasive device to measure blood glucose would be a gamechanger, a ‘must-have’ technology which would immediately improve the way we care for our patients, while lowering healthcare costs.”

About PAVmed

PAVmed Inc. is a highly differentiated, multiproduct medical device company employing a unique business model designed to advance innovative products to commercialization much more rapidly and with significantly less capital than the typical medical device company. This proprietary model enables PAVmed to pursue an expanding pipeline strategy with a view to enhancing and accelerating value creation. PAVmed’s diversified pipeline of products address unmet clinical needs encompassing a broad spectrum of clinical areas with attractive regulatory pathways and market opportunities. Its five lead technologies provide groundbreaking approaches to carpal tunnel syndrome , precancerous conditions of the esophagus (EsoGuard™/EsoCheck™), vascular access (PortIO™), pediatric ear infections and medical infusions (NextFlo™). The company is also developing innovative products in other areas, such as catheters and tissue ablation, while seeking to further expand its pipeline through engagements with clinician innovators and leading academic medical centers. For more information, please visit www.pavmed.com, follow us on Twitter, connect with us on LinkedIn, and watch our videos on YouTube. For more information on our majority owned subsidiary, Lucid Diagnostics Inc., please visit www.luciddx.com

If the saying that two heads are better than one is true, then joining two fields of science may be better than one to spur more advances in medicine. With a $6.7 million, five-year grant from the National Institutes of Health, Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers will bring together immunologists, oncologists and biomedical engineers in an effort to build new tools to treat cancer and autoimmune diseases.

Engineers have long been collaborating with scientists to develop new medical devices and tools, but recent advances in technology have helped scientists expand engineering concepts into fields once the sole domain of specialists. According to Johns Hopkins immunologist and lead investigator Jonathan Schneck, M.D., Ph.D., before now, engineering and immunology researchers worked together on various projects in an ad hoc way. The new Johns Hopkins Translational ImmunoEngineering (JH-TIE) Biotechnology Research Center aims to formalize the blend of engineering and immunology. Scientists have dubbed this “ImmunoEngineering.”

“When scientists work across disciplines, that’s when major advances in the fields happen,” says Schneck, professor of pathology, medicine and oncology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and member of the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center. “The advances in immunotherapy have been beacons in the darkness, but they haven’t answered everything. This is an opportunity to catalyze the next breakthroughs that we need.”

Among the projects scientists will be working on is the creation of artificial immune cells that educate the immune system about how and where to find cancer cells, setting the stage for an immune system attack on malignant cells.

Schneck says such immune cells, called antigen presenting cells, act as conductors in the symphony of the immune system. “One part of the system needs to lead the orchestra, instructing other cells when and where to integrate. Otherwise, it’s a cacophony of sounds,” he explains.

Other areas of research include using nanomaterials to program immune cells to fight disease, and analyzing how immune cells absorb, or metabolize, nutrients that affect their ability to stave off disease.

Leaders of the new center also plan to train other scientists in the immunoengineering field and educate the next generation of immunoengineers through workshops, online materials and scientific meetings.

More information about the center can be found on its website.

The JH-TIE center is planning collaborative projects with Johns Hopkins Medicine and Kimmel Cancer Center scientists Hai-Quan Mao, Jordan Green, Drew Pardoll, Jonathan Powell and Jennifer Elisseeff, and scientists at Cornell University, McMaster University, the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York University Langone, the University of Maryland, the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Wisconsin, the Salk Institute, Yonsei University, AsclepiX Therapeutics and NexImmune.

Funding for the research center was provided by the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (1P41EB028239-01).

Under a licensing agreement between NexImmune and Johns Hopkins University, Dr. Jonathan Schneck is entitled to a share of royalty received by the university on sales of products described in this article. Dr. Schneck is also a founder of NexImmune and owns equity in the company and serves as the Chair of NexImmune’s Scientific Advisory Board.

Johns Hopkins University faculty members Aleksander Popel and Jordan Green are founders of AsclepiX Therapeutics, LLC. Drs. Popel and Green also serve in Chief Officers Roles for AsclepiX Therapeutics, LLC and are inventors of technology that has been licensed to AsclepiX Therapeutics from Johns Hopkins University. Drs. Popel and Green hold an equity ownership interest in AsclepiX Therapeutics, LLC.

Under a licensing agreement between AsclepiX Therapeutics LLC and the Johns Hopkins University, Dr. Niranhan Pandey is entitled to royalties based on this agreement. Dr. Pandey is the Senior Director of Research & Development at AsclepiX Therapeutics LLC and a part-time faculty member at Johns Hopkins University.

UAE-based Abu Dhabi Health Services Company (SEHA) has opened the 3.2mft² Sheikh Shakhbout Medical City (SSMC) in Abu Dhabi. Canadian engineering services company Stantec has provided the master plan, architecture, interior and landscape design of the new hospital.

The new facility is said to be the first of its kind in the UAE to provide advanced burn treatment and provide access to specialty care services such as orthopaedic and thoracic surgery. SSMC has replaced the Al Mafraq Hospital, which was opened in 1983 and had reached its operational capacity.

Stantec has also provided mechanical, electrical, structural, infrastructure engineering services and construction administration oversight during the construction period.

SEHA facilities chief Mohammed Al Zaabi said: “SSMC was developed as part of SEHA’s vision to provide the best healthcare services in line with the directives of the Government of Abu Dhabi. “SEHA is a leading healthcare provider and SSMC is a significant addition to the services provided—adopting cutting-edge technologies and providing a high-class environment to both patients and users.

“SSMC is the flagship facility for SEHA, providing exceptional medical expertise and access to world-class healthcare services for both local and international patients.”

The new hospital comprises four towers with 732 beds that are distributed across three wards as post-surgical inpatient beds, maternal and child health beds that also include 12 VIP beds, medical intensive care unit (MICU) beds, cardiac ICU beds, surgical ICU beds, burn unit beds, and neonatal ICU beds.

Initially, 3,000 medical professionals will provide care for patients of all ages.

Stantec said that Abu Dhabi has set specific priorities, including reducing capacity gaps, improving the quality of healthcare services, and attracting and retaining top healthcare professionals. Stantec principal Kevin Christon said: “The completion of Sheikh Shakhbout Medical City is an important milestone for the UAE, helping the government meet important performance outcomes and open new avenues of care to residents near and far.”

GoMo Health, the developer of the evidence-based BehavioralRx® science for behavioral and lifestyle modification and human resiliency, in collaboration with Optimus Healthcare Partners, an accountable care organization (ACO) and UnitedHealthcare, have launched a Concierge Care bot (virtual mobile engagement system) for Medicare patients to increase self-activation and resiliency to stay on prescribed medication therapy programs for improved management of dosing, wellbeing, health outcomes and monitoring for interactions. The virtual care coordination program will focus initially on medication management related to diabetes, hypertension and cholesterol.

The Concierge Care system also nurtures family caregiver participation and educates them throughout the health journey, empowering them with specifics on medication management for their loved one to better facilitate adherence. Using a sophisticated artificial intelligence system, BehavioralRx logically customizes caregiver directives based on location and proximity to loved one and considers time zone and other personalization variables so that local caregivers receive tips they can actualize live, while remote caregivers are instructed on best ways to encourage adherence from a distance.

To learn more about the program, visit https://gomohealth.com/client/optimus/.

“The BehavioralRx science embedded in our Concierge Care system of care has been applied to numerous complex and chronic health conditions including cancer, cardiovascular, diabetes, opioids/substance abuse, mental and behavioral health and maternal child health and has produced ePROs including a 221% increase in medication adherence, 64% reduction in ED usage, 75% reduction in (inpatient) readmissions, and increased attendance in scheduled physician appointments,” says Bob Gold, Chief Behavioral Technologist, GoMo Health.

To learn more about BehavioralRx, visit https://gomohealth.com/behavioralrx/.

About GoMo Health

GoMo Health® is a leader in population health management and patient engagement solutions that support the continuum of care, improved patient satisfaction and MACRA value-based reimbursements. GoMo Health Concierge Care® personalizes patient interactions using our proprietary science, BehavioralRx®, The Science of Precision Health, building trust and credibility to motivate higher levels of activation and resiliency. In partnership with health care organizations worldwide, GoMo Health delivers a highly scalable and cost-effective solution for the management of high-risk, chronic, and complex conditions, enabling better self-management, healthy decision making, and improved outcomes.

QIAGEN announced a series of agreements that expand its immuno-oncology assets for future commercialization of novel companion diagnostics for precision medicine in immuno-oncology, in particular based on the powerful next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology.

The agreements include a new collaboration with the Japanese company Repertoire Genesis Inc., which will provide access to novel technologies for the development of T-cell / B-cell receptor repertoire assays for use on NGS systems. QIAGEN intends to highlight these new agreements and other elements of its oncology portfolio at the Association for Molecular Pathology (AMP) Annual Meeting, which is being held from November 7-9 in Baltimore, Maryland.

Additionally, QIAGEN has entered into a new licensing agreement with researchers at the University of Bonn in Germany for novel epigenomic biomarkers based on immune checkpoint gene methylation, including CTLA4, PD-L1 and PD1, with rights to co-develop predictive companion diagnostics. In a second licensing agreement, QIAGEN has gained exclusive access to biomarker intellectual property held by the German diagnostic company STRATIFYER Molecular Pathology GmbH that is intended to provide guidance for treatment decisions in bladder cancer.

This series of agreements comes after QIAGEN recently entered into an agreement with Illumina Inc. to accelerate the adoption of NGS in clinical decision-making. QIAGEN has non-exclusive rights to develop and globally commercialize companion diagnostics and other IVD kits to be used together with Illumina’s MiSeq™ Dx and NextSeq™ 550Dx Systems. The agreement also includes rights for expansion of the partnership on future Illumina diagnostic (Dx) systems. The partnership will initially focus on commercializing oncology IVD kits to support patient management and may expand in the future to include additional clinical diagnostic fields, such as cardiology, hereditary diseases, infectious diseases, as well as inflammatory and autoimmune diseases.

“We continue to expand our access to intellectual property and novel technologies that will help us to support our pharmaceutical and laboratory customers in the development of novel NGS-based solutions for precision medicine in immuno-oncology,” said Thierry Bernard, Senior Vice President, Head of the Molecular Diagnostics Business Area and Interim CEO of QIAGEN. “We look forward to working with our new partners and expanding the presence of their breakthroughs to customers around the world, and with the vision of improving outcomes for patients.”

Immuno-oncology collaboration with Repertoire Genesis

The worldwide, non-exclusive cross-marketing and promotion agreement with Repertoire Genesis covers joint market education efforts of the complementary capabilities of both companies. The goal is together to accelerate the development and availability of companion diagnostic tests on Illumina NGS platforms using the TCR technology developed by Repertoire Genesis in the field of immuno-oncology.

The TCR NGS technology includes the isolation of T-cells from peripheral blood as front-end processing, and uses a combination technology created by QIAGEN and Repertoire Genesis for TCR measurement, single primer set-based gene amplification, bioinformatics for interpretation of TCR repertoire analysis results, and the support of biomarker studies in Repertoire Genesis´ laboratory, located in Osaka, Japan.

”Providing a complete workflow for complex TCR analysis, combined with QIAGEN´s expertise in companion diagnostic development and commercialization and validated on Illumina´s NGS instruments, is a key step to leverage individual TCR diversity to clinical applications,” said Ryuji Suzuki, President & CEO of Repertoire Genesis Inc.

Immune checkpoint epigenomics

QIAGEN has received licensing rights relating to an epigenomic immune checkpoint gene methylation test developed at the University of Bonn.

Immuno-oncology drugs, e.g. immune checkpoint inhibitors targeting the programmed cell death 1 (PD-1) pathway or the cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated protein 4 (CTLA-4) elicit powerful immune responses in various cancers. Researchers at the University of Bonn have studied epigenetic modification of immune checkpoint genes, including CTLA-4 and PD-1, and identified DNA methylation biomarkers to predict response to diverse immunotherapies.

QIAGEN intends to leverage this license to develop companion diagnostics for use in selecting patients likely to benefit from specific immuno-oncology therapies. Multiple pharmaceutical companies are developing immunotherapies that are designed to inhibit or activate a growing list of immune checkpoints, including the CTLA-4 pathway, to unleash an immune response to cancers.

mRNA gene expression signatures to guide treatment decisions

QIAGEN has gained exclusive access to biomarker intellectual property from STRATIFYER Molecular Pathology GmbH, a German company with more than 10 years of Research & Development experience in the field of molecular biology, that may provide guidance for treatment decisions in bladder cancer and potentially also in other urothelial cancers.

In retrospective clinical studies conducted by the interdisciplinary German Network of Pathologists and Urologists, BRIDGE (Bladder cancer Research Initiative for Drug targets Germany), the mRNA gene expression signatures were shown to potentially provide important guidance for the selection of therapies, including the selection of immuno-oncology therapies compared to other targeted therapies.

These developments build on QIAGEN’s I-O portfolio, which includes QIAseq panels for comprehensive profiling of TMB (tumor mutation burden) and MSI (micro-satellite instability), the Omicsoft ImmunoLand bioinformatics database for visualization of immuno-oncology datasets, and ongoing collaborations with various pharmaceutical companies to develop novel multimodal companion diagnostics for immuno-oncology therapies.

QIAGEN is a global pioneer in precision medicine and markets a portfolio of about 30 companion diagnostics, which detect genetic abnormalities to provide insights that guide clinical decision-making. QIAGEN continues to expand its pipeline of solutions for precision medicine in cancer and other diseases, partnering with more than 25 pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to co-develop companion and complementary diagnostics. These solutions span various stages of the “patient care continuum” – from screening, diagnostic, prognostic, predictive, therapeutic treatment and recurrence monitoring. QIAGEN’s pipeline draws on a full range of testing platforms: polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using QIAsymphony workflows, next-generation sequencing (NGS) solutions and near-patient testing with QIAstat-Dx.

About QIAGEN

QIAGEN N.V., a Netherlands-based holding company, is the leading global provider of Sample to Insight solutions that enable customers to gain valuable molecular insights from samples containing the building blocks of life. Our sample technologies isolate and process DNA, RNA and proteins from blood, tissue and other materials. Assay technologies make these biomolecules visible and ready for analysis. Bioinformatics software and knowledge bases interpret data to report relevant, actionable insights. Automation solutions tie these together in seamless and cost-effective workflows. QIAGEN provides solutions to more than 500,000 customers around the world in Molecular Diagnostics (human healthcare) and Life Sciences (academia, pharma R&D and industrial applications, primarily forensics). As of September 30, 2019, QIAGEN employed approximately 5,200 people in over 35 locations worldwide. Further information can be found at http://www.qiagen.com.