As the value of medtech deals increases, investors are increasingly looking for earlier opportunities. COVID-19 has added both impetus and new opportunity, with innovators and investors vying to build a position in digital health technologies, such as remote monitoring and digital therapeutics.

Clinical-stage biopharma Starton Therapeutics is developing continuous delivery systems and transdermal technologies to improve the safety and efficacy of existing cancer medications, and eschewing VC firms in favor of retail investors. Chair and CEO Pedro Lichtinger recently appeared on Unicorn Hunters, an online reality TV show, to pitch the company to celebrity judges, and the public at large.

Founded in 1885 by Albert Boehringer and now comprised of 146 affiliated companies worldwide and a workforce of roughly 50,000 people, Boehringer Ingelheim has stood the test of time.

With COVID-19 a residual but still very real issue globally, Novo Holdings asked the big diagnostics question at a recent high-level roundtable: How can stakeholders capitalize on this moment of acute public awareness of diagnostics to improve adoption of tests and screening in the long term? The CEOs of Roche Diagnostics, GE Healthcare, Labcorp and Synlab, among others, gave their thoughts on how the system must change.

Immersive technologies are becoming a reality in the OR. In Vivo explores the future of surgery, profiling innovators of augmented reality technologies and exploring the promise and challenges surrounding robotic surgery as companies try to take technologies to the next level. 

The approval of several novel RNA therapeutics in the last five years and the success of the COVID-19 mRNA vaccines has revived interest in the potential of RNA-based therapies. DTx Pharma hopes to use fatty acid conjugation to improve the delivery and duration of small interfering RNA therapeutics for rare diseases.

More COVID-19 vaccines are beginning to flow into Africa, as coordination between partner organizations and African governmental agencies improves. However, gaps remain in cold chain storage, information flow on the ground is lagging and vaccine hesitancy persists. Also, pandemic-related economic depression in some African countries is jeopardizing procurement and access to vaccines. 

With COVID-19 a residual but still very real issue globally, Novo Holdings asked the big diagnostics question at a recent high-level roundtable: How can stakeholders capitalize on this moment of acute public awareness of diagnostics to improve adoption of tests and screening in the long term? The CEOs of Roche Diagnostics, GE Healthcare, Labcorp and Synlab, among others, gave their thoughts on how the system must change.

Two years into her tenancy as CEO, Bahija Jallal is on the cusp of taking UK biotech Immunocore from a research and development organization to a company with a burgeoning pipeline and a marketed therapy. She talks to In Vivo about validating the platform, an IPO and creating a commercial footprint.

As the global access debate adapts to the stark inequities exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the UN-backed Medicines Patent Pool is emerging as a key player on issues ranging from vaccine tech transfer to making more drugs affordable against the spread of non-communicable diseases like cancer to middle- and low-income countries.

Start-up pharmacy benefit managers such as Capital Rx and Evio hope to shake up the traditional PBM service model with increased drug price transparency, aggregated real-world data and outcomes-based contracting. The big three PBMs which dominate the market represent a formidable challenge.

Opioids are cheap, but the economics of clinical practice, including the shift of care from inside the hospital to outpatient or ambulatory facilities, are creating new opportunities for Pacira BioSciences’ non-opioid treatments for pain. Improved reimbursement and increased usage among anesthesiologists are the biggest revenue drivers for the company’s two marketed products.

A deeper understanding of rare diseases – how they differ across geographies and ethnicities, or which genes and biomarkers are most useful targets for new treatments – can help to accelerate and de-risk clinical trials. On the commercial front, patient data and insights could mean the difference between a category leader and a failure.

In Vivo's Deal-Making column is a survey of recent health care transactions listed by relevant industry segment – In Vitro Diagnostics, Medical Devices and Pharmaceuticals – and then categorized by type – Acquisition, Alliance, or Financing. This month’s column covers deals announced in June 2021. Data provided by Biomedtracker.

Only one of the six Olympic athletes promoting Lilly’s drugs actually took the product themselves or had a family member that did. Trulicity and Emgality TV ads include disclaimers while Verzenio commercial in memory of volleyball player April Ross’ mother does not.