In the edition of this week of Innovationrx we look at how rates can reach medical devices, a gene therapy company that helps blind children to see, stand up for science rallies, Abbvie comes into weight loss and more. To get it in your inbox, Subscribe here.
Employees take medical aids in a factory in the Mexican border town of Tijuana.
Photo Alliance via Getty Images
FOrty-three days after Donald Trump’s second term of officeAnd the rate policy is about as chaotic as the cuts through Doge. Trump introduced some of the rates that he campaigned on Tuesday morning, including 25% rates against American allies and large trading partners Canada and Mexico. The Mexico rates can have a heavy impact on manufacturers of medical devices because many devices are Made in Mexico. That is why earlier this month the Advanced Medical Technology Association, which represents large manufacturers, including Ge Healthcare and Philips, the Trump administration encouraged an exemption for medical devices and Prediction possible critical deficits without.
By Tuesday afternoon, however, the trade secretary Howard Lutnick was on TV and said that Trump could offer some lighting on Mexican and Canadian goods as quickly as possible. Whether or not it is pronounced, or which goods can be influenced, the uncertainty leaves manufacturers in a difficult place because changing Supply Chain takes time.
All three countries that have been hit with rates are revenge in a way that can also influence American companies. One immediate impact: China has banned the import of Gensequencers of Biotech Company Illumina. The impact of Trump’s Trade War has markets, with the S&P 500 this week 3% (up to and including Tuesday).
In the meantime, top officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs warned that the Trump administration of the Slash-and-Burn policy at USAID would lead to hundreds of thousands of deaths, Reported Propublica. The senior officials estimate that the victims would include up to 166,000 deaths from malaria, an increase of 30% in new tuberculosis cases, 200,000 children paralyzed by polio in the coming decade and more than a million children who were untreated for serious malnutrition.
Closer to home, HHS -Secretary Robert Kennedy, Jr. Teply vaccination for response to current outbreaks of measles in a FOX News -Editors that pulled criticism From doctors and experts in the field of public health for calling the decision to vaccinate ‘a personal’. In the meantime, important vaccine meetings have been postponed on both the CDC and the FDA and the Wall Street Journal reported That Kennedy is planning to renovate the staff of their advisory committees. The impact on this year’s flu vaccine is unclear; Manufacturers can choose to follow the guidelines of the World Health Organization, but they are usually dependent on the input of the vaccine advisory committees of the US government, which also help determine which vaccines are covered under the insurance. Kennedy is investigating and considering a $ 590 million contract with Moderna to develop vaccines against bird flu, According to BloombergAnd a contract of $ 461 million hung with Vaxart to create an oral Covid-19 vaccine.
The gene therapy company of this founder helped blind children to see again
Meiragtx -founder Zandy Forbes
Omar Saval / Meiragtx
OneAh -Year, hundreds of children are legally born blind Because of a genetic condition that breaks down their retina. Although some can make an early distinction between light and dark, a defect in their AIPL1 gene remains the most without sight by the time they become four. The condition has long been considered irreversible.
But that is no longer true. A new gene therapy from listed company Meiragtx has succeeded in doing something unprecedented: it gets a eyesight to 11 children who are blindly born.
Surgeons at Moorsfield Eye Hospital and University College London injected the retina of children born with the AIPL1 defect with a Meiragtx therapy that introduces a correct version of the gene, making their bodies produce the mechanisms that make the vision possible. Within a few weeks they could see it first. Now, years later they are all able to read, color and play like other children with the help of glasses.
“These were blind children and now they run around and find rooms. They can read letters. They can read songs, “said Zandy Forbes, 60, the founder and CEO of Meiragtx. Therapy is one of the many that the company is working on to treat eye -related disorders and other conditions such as Parkinson’s, obesity and Xerostomia.
Read more at Forbes.
Public Health and Hospitals
Since Donald Trump took office, there has been a barrage of attacks on scientists and scientific financing. In response, a group of scientists with early career has one Come on for science Rally in Washington, DC next Friday, March 7, with 31 official satellite rallies in cities including Boston, Chicago, Nashville, New York, Pittsburgh and Seattle. The goals of the group include safe scientific financing, an end to censorship and political interference in science and the defense of diversity, fairness and inclusion initiatives.
“The reason I set up this whole case is that it was surprising to me that we had not gone on the street,” Colette Delawalla, a Ph.D. Student in clinical psychology at Emory University, who is one of the main organizers, said Forbes.
She said that at least a few thousand people are expected to join the Rally in the Lincoln Memorial. Francis Collins, the old former director of the National Institutes of Health, who abrupt retirement on Saturday, Will be one of the line -up of around 30 speakers that are now being completed. “It really started,” said Delawalla. “I would be enthusiastic if 500 people came to scream in DC and the fact that it originated as it is is really crazy.”
Biotech and Farma
Biotech Giant Abbvie is Come to the weight loss space. On Monday, it announced That it had signed a license deal with a value of a maximum of $ 2.2 billion with the Danish company Gubra to market a long-term amyline drug, supplied by injection. The obesity market is growing rapidly and is dominated by GLP-1 drugs from Novo Nordisk (who makes Ozempic and Wegovy) and Eli Lilly (Zepbound and Mounjaro). In a December memorandum for investors, Leerink partners mentioned Amylin ‘de Hottest new mechanism for obesity. “Gubra’s GUB014295 is currently in a phase 1 clinical study. Abbvie pays $ 350 million in advance, with an extra $ 1,875 billion based on milestones. Abbvie shares have so far increased by 2.3% this week (up to and including Tuesday), while the S&P 500 index is declining in the same period.
Medtech
Medical technology company Paragonix announced Last week the kidney fault was used on a commercial flight for the first time. This device for transporting donor kidney helps the organs to keep a constant temperature and feeds them nutrients, keeping them in better condition, resulting in better clinical results for patients. Conventionally, donor organs are easily kept on ice and they are transported on charter flights. The kidney fault, on the other hand, can be used commercially, which CEO and founder Lisa Anderson told Forbes Can save thousands of dollars on the costs of flights. The device was erased by the FDA in October and was used for the first time for a transplant operation in January. The company has also erased FDA devices for the transport of hearts, lungs, pancreas and livers for transplantation.
Deal of the Week
Private-equity company Clearlake Capital buys a majority interest in software company Modmed in Healthcare. The deal appreciates the company at $ 5.3 billion including debts, making it according to the most valuable leverage in the sector this year the Financial times. Boca Raton, ModMed in Florida, operates electronic health files used by more than 160,000 special doctors and surgeons in the US. Reuters reported in January That private equity company Warburg Pincus (which invested in Modmed in 2017 for the first time) asked bids for the company and hoped to get more than $ 5 billion for it, including debts. Also -founder than Cane, who had been modified since 2010, won a co-CEO, Joe Harpaz, who had previously been director at Thomson Reuters, in February 2024. Clearlake has more than $ 90 billion in assets.
What we read
A New York Times Research showed that civil servants skipped patients on the waiting list for organ transplants About 20% From the time last year.
When this professor got cancer, he didn’t stop. He Has learned a lesson about it.
Medicare and Medicaid Agency Faces compromised functions and disruptions From the Lukrakje of the Trump administration and cuts – which can influence the activities of hospitals, care providers and insurance companies.
New treatments in clinical studies give hope to patients with pancreatic cancer, one of the Fatal cancers.
An officer of Texas warns against ‘measles parties’ Because the growing outbreak in the state has so far resulted in 146 cases, 20 hospital admissions and one death. In the meantime, New York City reports Two confirmed cases of measles.
As more states are confronted with doctor’s shortages, they relax license rules For doctors based on foreign trained.
Biotech Startup Callio Therapeutics, which is aimed at supplying anti -body medicines for several medicines, launched With $ 187 million in venture financing.
Cuts to USAID are delayed The reaction of the World Health Organization to one Unknown disease In Congo that has hit more than 1,300 people and caused 53 deaths.