How is biotech combating these five killer diseases on the planet?

Biotechnology is a massive scientific field that uses research tools from biology and chemistry to solve problems and that includes human diseases too. Ever since its existence, it has revolutionized mankind by contributing a lot towards the growing global and public health needs. It provides effective diagnostics, prevention and treatment measures, which includes production of recombinant vaccines and novel drugs for some killer diseases.

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Health Leads

Health Leads is a national non-profit organization that envisions a healthcare system that addresses all patients’ essential resource needs as a standard part of quality care. For more than 20 years, Health Leads has worked with leading healthcare organizations to create sustainable, high-impact and cost-effective social needs interventions that connect patients to the community-based resources they need to be healthy-from food to transportation to healthcare benefits.

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MedTech

How to Choose a Reliable Biotech Clinical Trial Management System?

Article | July 13, 2022

Introduction The medical and life-science industries are experiencing a robust transformation with the increasing prevalence of various types of diseases, including infectious diseases, chronic disorders, and acute conditions around the world. As a result, a significant rise in demand for more effective therapeutic drugs and bionics is being witnessed, leading to a swift increase in the number of clinical trials. For a successful trial, it is important for biotech companies to ensure the data submitted to regulatory bodies regarding clinical trials is accurate, reliable, and definitive from an ethical point of view. A reliable clinical trial management system plays a vital role in collecting, monitoring, and managing clinical data. The availability of high-quality clinical data also helps clinical research institutions make efficient treatment decisions and provide proper patient care. Hence, a number of biotech companies and research organizations are focusing on leveraging innovative clinical trial management solutions to handle a large amount of data, particularly in multi-center trials, and generate reliable, high-quality, and statistically sound data from clinical trials. However, selecting the most appropriate and reliable clinical trial management system is vital for the clinical trial's success. Let's see some of the steps that will assist these firms in choosing the right CTMS. Key Steps for Selecting Right Biotech Clinical Trial Management System Prioritize Study Needs Considering and prioritizing study needs is a crucial step in choosing the most reliable clinical trial management system for biotech companies. Prioritizing helps them to identify a solution that improves the study's quality and removes uncertainty for researchers when faced with difficult choices. Hence, biotech and life-science organizations should choose a clinical trial system that is simple to use, well-organized, and suitably designed to minimize the number of clicks required to complete a task. Select CTMS with Multiple Integrations Integrated clinical trial management systems provide the best value for the companies’ funds as they guarantee the smooth functioning of research protocols. In addition, integrations are necessary to fully understand the importance and advantages of clinical trial management software for ensuring smooth transitions between site management and data collection. Biotech and clinical research should look for CTMS platforms that can integrate with electronic medical record (EMR) platforms and clinical research process content (CRPC) billing grids. This will allow them to use the same billing designations and ensure compliance while minimizing the need for duplicate processes. Ensure System Compliance and Security Clinical research organizations need to adhere to a plethora of complex regulations in order to ensure compliance with one of the most challenging environments of principles, which is information security and privacy. Security and system compliance are vital aspects of choosing the right CTMS solutions for biotech firms as they assist in building trust and form a part of the system’s duties. While selecting CTMS systems, it is essential for companies engaged in clinical research to ensure that these platforms are able to configure both, group and individual permissions, along with having a data backup and recovery plan for hosted systems. This will allow companies to assess the privacy and security implications of research and anticipate complications that may arise in each phase of the project. Assess the Scalability Choosing a scalable CTMS that can accommodate various types of fluctuations and expansions enables biotech and clinical firms to quickly adapt to fast-changing trends and demand spikes while reducing maintenance costs and enhancing user agility. As scalability also means secure and expanded data storage, these businesses should instead use SaaS solutions than manually manage an ever-growing collection of hard drives. The right CTMS ensures accommodating the firm’s availability requirements without incurring the capital costs associated with expanding a physical infrastructure. The Closing Thought A well-executed and successful clinical trial involves multiple stages and processes. Several quality controls and stringent adherence to regulations are essential for the steps, along with efficient cross-departmental processes and procedures. Incorporating the right CTMS paves the way for paperless data collection, regulatory filing, and fiscal management tools for biotech researchers and administrative personnel.

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MedTech

Data Analytics: A Groundbreaking Technology in Biotech

Article | July 12, 2022

Biotechnology is a vast discipline of biology that employs diverse biological systems to create solutions that can significantly alter the ways in which they operate across various domains. That said, biotechnology is not a new notion. It has existed for millennia, with ancient civilizations using its earliest incarnations to cultivate crops and create alcoholic beverages. Today, the biotechnology industry has developed by leaps and bounds and has amassed a vast quantity of scientific data through study and research. Given the importance of data in the biotechnology business, it is not difficult to understand why biotech companies utilize data analytics. Modern data analytics tools have made it possible for researchers in the biotech industry to build predictive analytics models and gain knowledge about the most efficient approaches to accomplish their desired goals and objectives. Data analytics is increasingly being adopted by biotech businesses to better understand their industry and foresee any problems down the road. How is Data Analytics Revolutionizing Fields in Biotechnology? Today's business and scientific fields greatly benefit from data. Without the analysis of vast information libraries that provide new insights and enable new innovations, no industry can really advance. Being highly reliant on big data analytics, biotech is not an exception in this regard. With the tools and methods that help scientists systematize their findings and speed up their research for better and safer results, data analytics is making deeper inroads into the biotechnology industry. It is emerging as a crucial link between knowledge and information and is extensively being used for purposes other than just examining the information that is already available. The following are a few of the cutting-edge biotechnology applications of data analytics Genomics and Disease Treatment Pharmaceutical Drug Discovery Drug Recycling and Safety Agriculture and Agri-products Environmental Damage Mitigation Data Analytics Possibilities in Biotechnology With data analytics becoming an integral part of how biotech businesses operate, biotechnologists and related stakeholders need to understand its emergence and crucial role. Data analytics has opened new frontiers in the realm of biotechnology. Thanks to developments in data analytics, research and development activities that once took years may now be accomplished in a matter of months. Also, now scientists have access to biological, social, and environmental insights that can be exploited to create more effective and sustainable products. By understanding the importance of data-related tools and techniques applications, biotech companies are aiming to invest in the popularizing technology to stay updated in the fast-paced biotechnology industry.

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MedTech

Expansion of BioPharma: Opportunities and Investments

Article | September 22, 2022

Biopharmaceutical innovations are among the most ingenious and refined achievements of modern medical science. New concepts, techniques, and therapies are emerging, such as the cell therapy Provenge, which can be used to treat cancer, and gene therapies, which provide even more amazing promises of disease remission and regenerative medicine. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused a huge boom in the pharmaceutical industry. This is because more and more attention is being paid to increasing manufacturing capacity and starting new research on drug development. Biopharma: Leading the Way in the Pharma Sector In the past couple of years, the biopharmaceutical sector has deepened its roots across the medical and pharmaceutical industries, on account of the transformation of pharmaceutical companies towards biotechnology, creating opportunities for growth. Also, growing advancements in technologies such as 3D bioprinting, biosensors, and gene editing, along with the integration of advanced artificial intelligence and virtual and augmented reality are estimated to further create prospects for growth. According to a study, the biopharmaceutical sector makes nearly $163 billion around the world and grows by more than 8% each year, which is twice as fast as the traditional pharma sector. Massive Investments Directed Towards Biopharma Investing in biotech research and development (R&D) has yielded better returns than the pharma industry average. Hence, a number of pharmaceutical companies are shifting their presence toward biopharma to capitalize on the upcoming opportunities by investing in and expanding their biotechnology infrastructure. For instance, Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., an American manufacturer of scientific instrumentation, reagents and consumables, and software services, announced an investment of $97 million to expand its bioanalytical laboratory operations into three new locations in the U.S. With this investment, the company will add 150,000 square feet of scientific workspace and install the most advanced drug development technologies to produce life-changing medicines for patients in need.

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Medical

Advancement in Genomics Accelerating its Penetration into Precision Health

Article | June 22, 2022

Genomics is an interdisciplinary field of biology emphasizing the structure, editing, evolution, function, and mapping of genomes. It is creating deeper inroads across the precision health domain with the increasing introduction of advanced technologies such as quantum simulation, next-generation sequencing (NGS), and precise genome manipulation. As precision health focuses on providing the proper intervention to the right patient at the right time, genomics increasingly finds applications in human and pathogen genome sequencing in clinical and research spaces. Rising Hereditary Diseases Burden Paving the Way for Genomics in Precision Health In the last few years, a significant surge in the prevalence of diseases and ailments such as diabetes, obesity, baldness, and others has been witnessed across the globe. A history of family members with chronic diseases, such as cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure, hearing issues, and heart disease, can sometimes continue into the next generation. Hence, the study of genes is extensively being conducted for predicting health risks and early treatment of these diseases. It also finds use in CRISPR-based diagnostics and the preparation of precision medication for the individual. In addition, ongoing advancements in genomics are making it possible to identify different genetic traits that persuade people to more widespread diseases and health problems. The Emergence of Genomics Improves Disease Understanding Genomics refers to the study of the complete genetic makeup of a cell or organism. Increasing scientific research in the area substantially contributes to increasing knowledge about the human genome and assists in improving the ability to understand disease etiology, risk, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention. On account of these improvements, innovative genomic technologies and tools are being developed to enable better precision health not only for the individual but for various regional populations as well. The Way Forward With growing preference for personalized medicine and an increasing need for more accurate pathogen detection and diagnostics, genomics is gaining huge popularity across the precision health domain. Also, increasing research activities for developing novel high-precision therapeutics and rising importance of gene study in the prevention, diagnosis, and management of infectious and genetic diseases will further pave the way for genomics in the forthcoming years.

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Spotlight

Health Leads

Health Leads is a national non-profit organization that envisions a healthcare system that addresses all patients’ essential resource needs as a standard part of quality care. For more than 20 years, Health Leads has worked with leading healthcare organizations to create sustainable, high-impact and cost-effective social needs interventions that connect patients to the community-based resources they need to be healthy-from food to transportation to healthcare benefits.

Related News

ASCO: Shrinking 60% of lung cancers, Blueprint's RET drug poised for 2020 filing

fiercebiotech | June 03, 2019

CHICAGO-Blueprint Medicines RET inhibitor BLU-667 shrank tumors in 60% of a difficult-to-treat group of lung cancer patients, teeing it up for a 2020 filing in patients with RET-altered non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who had already tried chemotherapy.The phase 2 data, presented Monday at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), show a dramatically better response than is seen with current treatments, Blueprint Chief Medical Officer Andy Boral, M.D., told FierceBiotech.

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In a much-needed positive for BMS, Celgene gains FDA review for blockbuster hopeful

fiercebiotech | June 04, 2019

The $74 billion deal that will see Bristol-Myers Squibb subsume Celgene into its ranks is all but done, but its been a rocky path. Today, Celgene delivered some positive optics for its would-be parent. The Big Biotech and partner Acceleron say that blood disease drug luspatercept, a blockbuster hopeful, has been given a series of FDA passes: First up is a priority review for the erythroid maturation agents potential indication in beta-thalassemia (with an action date of Dec. 4), followed by a PDUFA date of April 4 for its myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) indication.

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Massive Bio, IBM Watson, others team up with Biden Cancer Initiative for oncology work

fiercebiotech | June 04, 2019

Trial matchmaker Massive Bio, IBM Watson and a host of other organizations have partnered with former Vice President Joe Bidens Cancer Initiative to help improve patients access to and the work coming from cancer studies.This will be done via the so-called Oncology Clinical Trial Information Commons (OCTIC), a shared platform where all information about clinical trials can be stored and accessed for patient matching and other data mining.

Read More

ASCO: Shrinking 60% of lung cancers, Blueprint's RET drug poised for 2020 filing

fiercebiotech | June 03, 2019

CHICAGO-Blueprint Medicines RET inhibitor BLU-667 shrank tumors in 60% of a difficult-to-treat group of lung cancer patients, teeing it up for a 2020 filing in patients with RET-altered non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who had already tried chemotherapy.The phase 2 data, presented Monday at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), show a dramatically better response than is seen with current treatments, Blueprint Chief Medical Officer Andy Boral, M.D., told FierceBiotech.

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In a much-needed positive for BMS, Celgene gains FDA review for blockbuster hopeful

fiercebiotech | June 04, 2019

The $74 billion deal that will see Bristol-Myers Squibb subsume Celgene into its ranks is all but done, but its been a rocky path. Today, Celgene delivered some positive optics for its would-be parent. The Big Biotech and partner Acceleron say that blood disease drug luspatercept, a blockbuster hopeful, has been given a series of FDA passes: First up is a priority review for the erythroid maturation agents potential indication in beta-thalassemia (with an action date of Dec. 4), followed by a PDUFA date of April 4 for its myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) indication.

Read More

Massive Bio, IBM Watson, others team up with Biden Cancer Initiative for oncology work

fiercebiotech | June 04, 2019

Trial matchmaker Massive Bio, IBM Watson and a host of other organizations have partnered with former Vice President Joe Bidens Cancer Initiative to help improve patients access to and the work coming from cancer studies.This will be done via the so-called Oncology Clinical Trial Information Commons (OCTIC), a shared platform where all information about clinical trials can be stored and accessed for patient matching and other data mining.

Read More

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