Issue
5 Volume 2
June 4, 2008 |
 |
Critical
Mass
The
Virginia Biosciences Commercialization
Center is taking life sciences in the
Richmond region to a new level,
assembling venture funding and a support
network to help foreign companies
commercialize their products in the
United States.
by
James A. Bacon
Virtual
Ports Ltd., a start-up company in
Misgav, Israel, is developing
technology that promoters hope
will revolutionize the practice of
endoscopic surgery. Following the
lead of orthopedic surgeons who use
minimally invasive tools to
reconstruct knee and shoulder
joints, Virtual Ports is adding to
the toolkit that surgeons can employ
when operating inside a patient's
chest or abdomen.
Dr.
Ken Zaslav knows a thing or two
about orthopedic surgery: He founded
the Sports Medicine Center at the
Advanced Orthopedic Centers in
Richmond. He believes that
endoscopic surgery is following the
same path toward less invasive
techniques that orthroscopy began a
decade ago, and
Virtual Ports has created two
surgical tools that will propel the
process forward, he told a gathering
of the Richmond Venture Forum
earlier this month.
When
surgeons insert endoscopic blades inside the body, they can get
fogged up, Zaslav explained.
Surgeons have to pull the scope out
of the body, clean it and reinsert
it 16 times on average during an
operation -- a process that
increases the length of the surgery
and raises the risk of infection.
Virtual Ports has invented a tool
anchored in the cavity, EndoClear,
that allows the surgeon to wipe the
lens clean without retracting the
scope. Another device, EndoGrab,
makes it easier to move pesky
intestines and other organs out of
the surgeon's way, saving the
expense of an assistant and the
trauma of a second incision for a
second scope.
|
Zaslav |
"Virtual
Ports has a pipeline of tools that
will revolutionize surgery,"
says Zaslav, who is helping the
Israelis commercialize their
technology in the United States. The
new tools will make many surgeries
less expensive, speed patient
recovery times and improve medical
outcomes.
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That's
great news by any measure. For the
Richmond life sciences community, the
story gets even better. Virtual Ports is
one of eight Israeli companies that has
agreed to launch its United States
operations from the Virginia Biotech
Research Park in downtown Richmond. The
hope is that, in time, the company's
nominal presence could grow into a
full-fledged U.S. headquarters that
oversees clinical trials, regulatory
approvals and the set-up of distribution
channels.
More.
Betting
on Biologics
Insmed
CEO Geoffrey Allan has positioned the
company to prosper if Congress reforms
drug patent laws.
Englishman
Geoffrey Allan is betting the future of
the company he founded, Richmond-based
Insmed, Inc., on the proposition that the
U.S. Congress will reform patent laws
preventing competition in a class of
drugs, biologics, created by the
biotech industry. Insmed is best known for
IPLEX, a drug used in the treatment of
certain “orphan” diseases affecting
fewer than 200,000 people, but it is
investing heavily as well in creating
“follow-on biologics” -- generic
versions --- of blockbuster drugs
accounting for $10 billion in sales at
today’s prices.
|
Geoffrey
Allan (photo credit: The American.) |
In
an interview in the March/April
issue of The
American magazine, Allan
outlines his bold strategy. Due to a
loophole in the 1984 law overhauling
the regulation of drugs in the United
States, a class of drugs invented by the
then-emerging biotech industry,
known as biologics, was
exempted from the 20-year limits on patent protection. When |
patent protections expire, competitors move into the
market with cheaper generics, saving U.S. consumers untold billions of dollars. But
the patent shield for biologics never
ends.
“Biologic
drugs now account for about $40 billion in
U.S.
sales,” says Allan. “Basically, there
is no way that a generic manufacturer can
come in when the patents have expired to
copy these drugs and bring them to the
market at a cheaper price. Consequently,
these drugs cost the healthcare system a
huge amount of money, and it has created a
monopoly for the large biotechnology
companies.”
Insmed,
says Allan, is the only small company in
the country today that has the scientific
and technical infrastructure to make these
types of drugs. One is a generic version
of Neupogen, created by Amgen to stimulate
the immune system following chemotheraphy
by increasing the number of white blood
cells. If Congress closes the biologics
loophole and the FDA approves Insmed's
follow-on version of the drug, Insmed
plans to release it into the marketplace
when the patent on Neupogen would be due
to expire in 2012.
“We’re
hoping that Congress will deal with this
issue and allow the FDA to create a
pathway for these drugs to be copied,”
Allan says. Insmed is taking a risk when
it goes up against the multibillion-dollar
biotech giants, he concedes, but he thinks
the odds favor him. “When you look at
the expense, these drugs are currently
accounting for about $40 billion in
U.S.
sales. The sales are growing annually by
20 percent. If you look at Medicare
expenditures, the highest cost in these
expenditures is for these biotechnology
products, and they cost patients tens of
thousands of dollars annually. The law has
to change.” (From
Richmond.com)
VCU-connected
blood-clot product is closer to
battlefield
Approval
for WoundStat, developed by VCU
scientists, would bring money to school.
By
Louis Llovio
Times-Dispatch
Writer
As
the nation approaches the fifth
anniversary of the Iraq War, a Virginia
Commonwealth University-created
blood-clotting product is one step closer
to getting into the hands of U.S.
soldiers.
The
Army could decide in early April whether
to outfit troops with WoundStat, a mix of
minerals that, when applied to wounds,
stops heavy bleeding.
|
|
Dr.
Kevin R. Ward showed a bag of
WoundStat at VCU Medical Center in
May. Photo By: JEFFREY KELLEY |
That
decision will follow testing by the Army
Institute of Surgical Research, which
studies combat care and products for
injured soldiers. A recent test of five
products found WoundStat to be the most
effective. WoundStat was the sole product
found effective "100 percent of the
time."
Major
blood loss is responsible for nearly 50
percent of deaths on the battlefield, the
institute said. So
far during the Iraq War, nearly 4,000 U.S.
military deaths have been reported.
While
the Army has no time frame for approval,
TraumaCure, the Bethesda, Md.-based
company that holds the license to sell
WoundStat, will have produced by the end
of this month enough WoundStat for every
soldier in Afghanistan and Iraq. More.
(Originally
published in the March 19, 2008, edition
of the Richmond Times-Dispatch.)
Think
of Bugs as Friends
A VCU
scientist says insects can serve as
environmental monitors.
by
Rex Springston
Times-Dispatch
Writer
Take
a moment to give thanks for cockroaches and
houseflies. They just might save your life
someday.
Virginia
Commonwealth University
entomologist Karen Kester has found the
much-maligned insects are good at detecting
harmful chemicals, viruses and other
potential threats to people.
If,
for example, you want to know if a building
contains anthrax, or if a room was used as a
bioterror lab, you can catch insects in the
area and test them for the harmful
materials, Kester said.
|
Karen
Kester (Photo
credit USA
Today) |
"I'm
not the first to discover that insects pick
up stuff," said Kester, 56. "I'm
just the first one to exploit it."
Since
May 2001, Kester has received about $1.6
million in grants from agencies related to
the Department of Defense to study the use
of
|
creepy
crawlers in
finding dangerous materials.
Initially,
the idea was to train insects to pursue
certain odors, release the bugs, catch them
and test them.
That
sounded to Kester like a lot of extra
effort.
"So
I thought, let's just see what's on the
insects that are already out there,"
Kester said. More.
(Originally
published in the March 11, 2008, edition of
the Richmond Times-Dispatch.)
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