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Live Conference Coverage @Medcitynews Converge 2018 @Philadelphia: Promising Drugs and Breaking Down Silos

Reporter: Stephen J. Williams, PhD

Promising Drugs, Pricing and Access

The drug pricing debate rages on. What are the solutions to continuing to foster research and innovation, while ensuring access and affordability for patients? Can biosimilars and generics be able to expand market access in the U.S.?

Moderator: Bunny Ellerin, Director, Healthcare and Pharmaceutical Management Program, Columbia Business School
Speakers:
Patrick Davish, AVP, Global & US Pricing/Market Access, Merck
Robert Dubois M.D., Chief Science Officer and Executive Vice President, National Pharmaceutical Council
Gary Kurzman, M.D., Senior Vice President and Managing Director, Healthcare, Safeguard Scientifics
Steven Lucio, Associate Vice President, Pharmacy Services, Vizient

What is working and what needs to change in pricing models?

Robert:  He sees so many players in the onStevencology space discovering new drugs and other drugs are going generic (that is what is working).  However are we spending too much on cancer care relative to other diseases (their initiative Going Beyond the Surface)

Steven:  the advent of biosimilars is good for the industry

Patrick:  large effort in oncology, maybe too much (750 trials on Keytruda) and he says pharma is spending on R&D (however clinical trials take large chunk of this money)

Robert: cancer has gotten a free ride but cost per year relative to benefit looks different than other diseases.  Are we overinvesting in cancer or is that a societal decision

Gary:  maybe as we become more specific with precision medicines high prices may be a result of our success in specifically targeting a mutation.  We need to understand the targeted drugs and outcomes.

Patrick: “Cancer is the last big frontier” but he says prices will come down in most cases.  He gives the example of Hep C treatment… the previous only therapeutic option was a very toxic yearlong treatment but the newer drugs may be more cost effective and safer

Steven: Our blockbuster drugs could diffuse the expense but now with precision we can’t diffuse the expense over a large number of patients

President’s Cancer Panel Recommendation

Six recommendations

  1. promoting value based pricing
  2. enabling communications of cost
  3. financial toxicity
  4. stimulate competition biosimilars
  5. value based care
  6. invest in biomedical research

Patrick: the government pricing regime is hurting.  Alot of practical barriers but Merck has over 200 studies on cost basis

Robert:  many concerns/impetus started in Europe on pricing as they are a set price model (EU won’t pay more than x for a drug). US is moving more to outcomes pricing. For every one health outcome study three studies did not show a benefit.  With cancer it is tricky to establish specific health outcomes.  Also Medicare gets best price status so needs to be a safe harbor for payers and biggest constraint is regulatory issues.

Steven: They all want value based pricing but we don’t have that yet and there is a challenge to understand the nuances of new therapies.  Hard to align all the stakeholders together so until some legislation starts to change the reimbursement-clinic-patient-pharma obstacles.  Possibly the big data efforts discussed here may help align each stakeholders goals.

Gary: What is the data necessary to understand what is happening to patients and until we have that information it still will be complicated to determine where investors in health care stand at in this discussion

Robert: on an ICER methods advisory board: 1) great concern of costs how do we determine fair value of drug 2) ICER is only game in town, other orgs only give recommendations 3) ICER evaluates long term value (cost per quality year of life), budget impact (will people go bankrupt)

4) ICER getting traction in the public eye and advocates 5) the problem is ICER not ready for prime time as evidence keeps changing or are they keeping the societal factors in mind and they don’t have total transparancy in their methodology

Steven: We need more transparency into all the costs associated with the drug and therapy and value-based outcome.  Right now price is more of a black box.

Moderator: pointed to a recent study which showed that outpatient costs are going down while hospital based care cost is going rapidly up (cost of site of care) so we need to figure out how to get people into lower cost setting

Breaking Down Silos in Research

“Silo” is healthcare’s four-letter word. How are researchers, life science companies and others sharing information that can benefit patients more quickly? Hear from experts at institutions that are striving to tear down the walls that prevent data from flowing.

Moderator: Vini Jolly, Executive Director, Woodside Capital Partners
Speakers:
Ardy Arianpour, CEO & Co-Founder, Seqster @seqster
Lauren Becnel, Ph.D., Real World Data Lead for Oncology, Pfizer
Rakesh Mathew, Innovation, Research, & Development Lead, HealthShareExchange
David Nace M.D., Chief Medical Officer, Innovaccer

Seqster: Seqster is a secure platform that helps you and your family manage medical records, DNA, fitness, and nutrition data—all in one place. Founder has a genomic sequencing background but realized sequence  information needs to be linked with medical records.

HealthShareExchange.org :

HealthShare Exchange envisions a trusted community of healthcare stakeholders collaborating to deliver better care to consumers in the greater Philadelphia region. HealthShare Exchange will provide secure access to health information to enable preventive and cost-effective care; improve quality of patient care; and facilitate care transitions. They have partnered with multiple players in healthcare field and have data on over 7 million patients.

Innovacer

Data can be overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be this way. To drive healthcare efficiency, we designed a modular suite of products for a smooth transition into a data-driven world within 4 weeks. Why does it take so much money to move data around and so slowly?

What is interoperatibility?

Ardy: We knew in genomics field how to build algorithms to analyze big data but how do we expand this from a consumer standpoint and see and share your data.

Lauren: how can we use the data between patients, doctors, researchers?  On the research side genomics represent only 2% of data.  Silos are one issue but figuring out the standards for data (collection, curation, analysis) is not set. Still need to improve semantic interoperability. For example Flatiron had good annotated data on male metastatic breast cancer.

David: Technical interopatabliltiy (platform), semantic interopatability (meaning or word usage), format (syntactic) interopatibility (data structure).  There is technical interoperatiblity between health system but some semantic but formats are all different (pharmacies use different systems and write different prescriptions using different suppliers).  In any value based contract this problem is a big issue now (we are going to pay you based on the quality of your performance then there is big need to coordinate across platforms).  We can solve it by bringing data in real time in one place and use mapping to integrate the format (need quality control) then need to make the data democratized among players.

Rakesh:  Patients data should follow the patient. Of Philadelphia’s 12 health systems we had a challenge to make data interoperatable among them so tdhey said to providers don’t use portals and made sure hospitals were sending standardized data. Health care data is complex.

David: 80% of clinical data is noise. For example most eMedical Records are text. Another problem is defining a patient identifier which US does not believe in.

 

 

 

 

Please follow on Twitter using the following #hash tags and @pharma_BI

#MCConverge

#cancertreatment

#healthIT

#innovation

#precisionmedicine

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And at the following handles:

@pharma_BI

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Live Conference Coverage @Medcitynews Converge 2018 Philadelphia:Liquid Biopsy and Gene Testing vs Reimbursement Hurdles

Reporter: Stephen J. Williams, PhD

 

9:25- 10:15 Liquid Biopsy and Gene Testing vs. Reimbursement Hurdles

Genetic testing, whether broad-scale or single gene-testing, is being ordered by an increasing number of oncologists, but in many cases, patients are left to pay for these expensive tests themselves. How can this dynamic be shifted? What can be learned from the success stories?

Moderator: Shoshannah Roth, Assistant Director of Health Technology Assessment and Information Services , ECRI Institute @Ecri_Institute
Speakers:
Rob Dumanois, Manager – reimbursement strategy, Thermo Fisher Scientific
Eugean Jiwanmall, Senior Research Analyst for Medical Policy & Technology Evaluation , Independence Blue Cross @IBX
Michael Nall, President and Chief Executive Officer, Biocept

 

Michael: Wide range of liquid biopsy services out there.  There are screening companies however they are young and need lots of data to develop pan diagnostic test.  Most of liquid biopsy is more for predictive analysis… especially therapeutic monitoring.  Sometimes solid biopsies are impossible , limited, or not always reliable due to metastasis or tough to biopsy tissues like lung.

Eugean:  Circulating tumor cells and ctDNA is the only FDA approved liquid biopsies.  However you choose then to evaluate the liquid biopsy, PCR NGS, FISH etc, helps determines what the reimbursement options are available.

Rob:  Adoption of reimbursement for liquid biopsy is moving faster in Europe than the US.  It is possible in US that there may be changes to the payment in one to two years though.

Michael:  China is adopting liquid biopsy rapidly.  Patients are demanding this in China.

Reimbursement

Eugean:  For IBX to make better decisions we need more clinical trials to correlate with treatment outcome.  Most of the major cancer networks, like NCCN, ASCO, CAP, just have recommendations and not approved guidelines at this point.  From his perspective with lung cancer NCCN just makes a suggestion with EGFR mutations however only the companion diagnostic is approved by FDA.

Michael:  Fine needle biopsies are usually needed by the pathologist anyway before they go to liquid biopsy as need to know the underlying mutations in the original tumor, it just is how it is done in most cancer centers.

Eugean:  Whatever the established way of doing things, you have to outperform the clinical results of the old method for adoption of a newer method.

Reimbursement issues have driven a need for more research into clinical validity and utility of predictive and therapeutic markers with regard to liquid biopsies.  However although many academic centers try to partner with Biocept Biocept has a limit of funds and must concentrate only on a few trials.  The different payers use different evidence based methods to evaluate liquid biopsy markers.  ECRI also has a database for LB markers using an evidence based criteria.  IBX does sees consistency among payers as far as decision and policy.

NGS in liquid biopsy

Rob: There is a path to coverage, especially through the FDA.  If you have a FDA cleared NGS test, it will be covered.  These are long and difficult paths to reimbursement for NGS but it is feasible. Medicare line of IBX covers this testing, however on the commercial side they can’t cover this.  @IBX: for colon only kras or nras has clinical utility and only a handful of other cancer related genes for other cancers.  For a companion diagnostic built into that Dx do the other markers in the panel cost too much?

Please follow on Twitter using the following #hash tags and @pharma_BI

#MCConverge

#cancertreatment

#healthIT

#innovation

#precisionmedicine

#healthcaremodels

#personalizedmedicine

#healthcaredata

And at the following handles:

@pharma_BI

@medcitynews

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Live Conference Coverage @Medcitynews Converge 2018 Philadelphia: The Davids vs. the Cancer Goliath Part 2

Reporter: Stephen J. Williams, PhD

8:40 – 9:25 AM The Davids vs. the Cancer Goliath Part 2

Startups from diagnostics, biopharma, medtech, digital health and emerging tech will have 8 minutes to articulate their visions on how they aim to tame the beast.

Start Time End Time Company
8:40 8:48 3Derm
8:49 8:57 CNS Pharmaceuticals
8:58 9:06 Cubismi
9:07 9:15 CytoSavvy
9:16 9:24 PotentiaMetrics

Speakers:
Liz Asai, CEO & Co-Founder, 3Derm Systems, Inc. @liz_asai
John M. Climaco, CEO, CNS Pharmaceuticals @cns_pharma 

John Freyhof, CEO, CytoSavvy
Robert Palmer, President & CEO, PotentiaMetrics @robertdpalmer 
Moira Schieke M.D., Founder, Cubismi, Adjunct Assistant Prof UW Madison @cubismi_inc

 

3Derm Systems

3Derm Systems is an image analysis firm for dermatologic malignancies.  They use a tele-medicine platform to accurately triage out benign malignancies observed from the primary care physician, expediate those pathology cases if urgent to the dermatologist and rapidly consults with you over home or portable device (HIPAA compliant).  Their suite also includes a digital dermatology teaching resource including digital training for students and documentation services.

 

CNS Pharmaceuticals

developing drugs against CNS malignancies, spun out of research at MD Anderson.  They are focusing on glioblastoma and Berubicin, an anthracycline antiobiotic (TOPOII inhibitor) that can cross the blood brain barrier.  Berubicin has good activity in a number of animal models.  Phase I results were very positive and Phase II is scheduled for later in the year.  They hope that the cardiotoxicity profile is less severe than other anthracyclines.  The market opportunity will be in temazolamide resistant glioblastoma.

Cubismi

They are using machine learning and biomarker based imaging to visualize tumor heterogeneity. “Data is the new oil” (Intel CEO). We need prediction machines so they developed a “my body one file” system, a cloud based data rich file of a 3D map of human body.

CUBISMI IS ON A MISSION TO HELP DELIVER THE FUTURE PROMISE OF PRECISION MEDICINE TO CURE DISEASE AND ASSURE YOUR OPTIMAL HEALTH.  WE ARE BUILDING A PATIENT-DOCTOR HEALTH DATA EXCHANGE PLATFORM THAT WILL LEVERAGE REVOLUTIONARY MEDICAL IMAGING TECHNOLOGY AND PUT THE POWER OF HEALTH DATA INTO THE HANDS OF YOU AND YOUR DOCTORS.

 

CytoSavvy

CytoSavvy is a digital pathology company.  They feel AI has a fatal flaw in that no way to tell how a decision was made. Use a Shape Based Model Segmentation algorithm which uses automated image analysis to provide objective personalized pathology data.  They are partnering with three academic centers (OSU, UM, UPMC) and pool data and automate the rule base for image analysis.

CytoSavvy’s patented diagnostic dashboards are intuitive, easy–to-use and HIPAA compliant. Our patented Shape-Based Modeling Segmentation (SBMS) algorithms combine shape and color analysis capabilities to increase reliability, save time, and improve decisions. Specifications and capabilities for our web-based delivery system follow.

link to their white paper: https://www.cytosavvy.com/resources/healthcare-ai-value-proposition.pdf

PotentialMetrics

They were developing a diagnostic software for cardiology epidemiology measuring outcomes however when a family member got a cancer diagnosis felt there was a need for outcomes based models for cancer treatment/care.  They deliver real world outcomes for persoanlized patient care to help patients make decisions on there care by using a socioeconomic modeling integrated with real time clinical data.

Featured in the Wall Street Journal, using the informed treatment decisions they have generated achieve a 20% cost savings on average.  There research was spun out of Washington University St. Louis.

They have concentrated on urban markets however the CEO had mentioned his desire to move into more rural areas of the country as there models work well for patients in the rural setting as well.

Please follow on Twitter using the following #hash tags and @pharma_BI 

#MCConverge

#cancertreatment

#healthIT

#innovation

#precisionmedicine

#healthcaremodels

#personalizedmedicine

#healthcaredata

And at the following handles:

@pharma_BI

@medcitynews

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Live Conference Coverage @MedCity news Converge 2018 Philadelphia: Early Diagnosis Through Predictive Biomarkers, NonInvasive Testing, Volume 2 (Volume Two: Latest in Genomics Methodologies for Therapeutics: Gene Editing, NGS and BioInformatics, Simulations and the Genome Ontology), Part 1: Next Generation Sequencing (NGS)

5:00 – 5:45 PM Early Diagnosis Through Predictive Biomarkers, NonInvasive Testing

Reporter: Stephen J. Williams, Ph.D.

 

Diagnosing cancer early is often the difference between survival and death. Hear from experts regarding the new and emerging technologies that form the next generation of cancer diagnostics.

Moderator: Heather Rose, Director of Licensing, Thomas Jefferson University
Speakers:
Bonnie Anderson, Chairman and CEO, Veracyte @BonnieAndDx
Kevin Hrusovsky, Founder and Chairman, Powering Precision Health @KevinHrusovsky

Bonnie Anderson and Veracyte produces genomic tests for thyroid and other cancer diagnosis.  Kevin Hrusovksy and Precision Health uses peer reviewed evidence based medicine to affect precision medicine decision.

Bonnie: aim to get a truth of diagnosis.  Getting tumor tissue is paramount as well as properly preserved tissue.  They use deep RNA sequencing  and machine learning  in their clinically approved tests.

Kevin: Serial biospace entrepreneur.  Two diseases, cancer and neurologic, have been diseases which have been hardest to get reproducible and validated biomarkers of early disease.  He concentrates on protein biomarkers.

Heather:  FDA has recently approved drugs for early disease intervention.  However the use of biomarkers can go beyond patient stratification in clinical trials.

Kevin: 15 approved drugs for MS but the markers are scans looking for brain atrophy which is too late of an endpoint.  So we need biomarkers of early disease progression.  We can use those early biomarkers of disease progression so pharma can target those early biomarkers and or use those early biomarkers of disease progression  for endpoint

Bonnie: exciting time in the early diagnostics field. She prefers transcriptomics to DNA based methods such as WES or WGS (whole exome or whole genome sequencing).  It was critical to show data on the cost savings imparted by their transcriptomic based thryoid cancer diagnostic test for payers to consider this test eligible for reimbursement.

Kevin: There has been 20 million  CAT scans for  cancer but it is estimated 90% of these scans led to misdiagnosis. Biomarker  development  has revolutionized diagnostics in this disease area.  They have developed a breakthrough panel of ten protein biomarkers in serum which he estimates may replace 5 million mammograms.

All panelists agreed on the importance of regulatory compliance and the focus of new research should be on early detection.  In addition they believe that Dr. Gotlieb’s appointment to the FDA is a positive for the biomarker development field, as Dr. Gotlieb understands the potential and importance of early detection and prevention of disease.  Kevin also felt Dr. Gotlieb understands the importance of incorporating biomarkers as endpoints in clinical trials.  Over 750 phase 1,2, and 3 clinical trials use biomarker endpoints but the pharma companies still need to prove the biomarkers clinical relevance to the FDA.They also agreed it would be helpful to involve advocacy groups in putting more pressure on the healthcare providers and policy makers on this importance of diagnostics as a preventative measure.

In addition, the discovery and use of biomarkers as disease endpoints has led to a resurgence of Alzheimer’s disease drug development by companies which have previously given up on these type of neurodegenerative diseases.

Kevin feels proteomics offers great advantages over DNA-based diagnostics, especially in cancer such as ovarian cancer, where a high degree of specificity for a diagnostic test is required to ascertain if a woman should undergo prophylactic oophorectomy.  He suggests that a new blood-based protein biomarker panel is being developed for early detection of some forms of ovarian cancer.

Please follow on Twitter using the following #hash tags and @pharma_BI

#MCConverge

#cancertreatment

#healthIT

#innovation

#precisionmedicine

#healthcaremodels

#personalizedmedicine

#healthcaredata

And at the following handles:

@pharma_BI

@medcitynews

 

Please see related articles on Live Coverage of Previous Meetings on this Open Access Journal

LIVE – Real Time – 16th Annual Cancer Research Symposium, Koch Institute, Friday, June 16, 9AM – 5PM, Kresge Auditorium, MIT

Real Time Coverage and eProceedings of Presentations on 11/16 – 11/17, 2016, The 12th Annual Personalized Medicine Conference, HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL, Joseph B. Martin Conference Center, 77 Avenue Louis Pasteur, Boston

Tweets Impression Analytics, Re-Tweets, Tweets and Likes by @AVIVA1950 and @pharma_BI for 2018 BioIT, Boston, 5/15 – 5/17, 2018

BIO 2018! June 4-7, 2018 at Boston Convention & Exhibition Center

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/press-coverage/

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Live Conference Coverage @Medcity Converge 2018 Philadelphia: Oncology Value Based Care and Patient Management

Reporter: Stephen J. Williams, Ph.D.

3:15 – 4:00 PM Breakout: What’s A Good Model for Value-Based Care in Oncology?

How do you implement a value-based care model in oncology? Medicare has created a bundled payment model in oncology and there are lessons to be learned from that and other programs. Listen to two presentations from experts in the field.

Moderator: Mahek Shah, M.D., Senior Researcher, Harvard Business School @Mahek_MD
Speakers:
Charles Saunders M.D., CEO, Integra Connect
Mari Vandenburgh, Director of Value-Based Reimbursement Operations, Highmark @Highmark

 

Mari: Building strategic partnerships with partners focused on population based health and evidence based outcomes. they provide data analytics and consultative services.  Incorporate risk based systems.  also looking at ancillary segments because they see cost savings.  True Performance is their flagship performance program and 11% lower ED (saving $18 million) rates and 16% lower readmissions ($200 million cost savings).  Also launched the Highmark Cancer care Program with Johns Hopkins.  They monitor the adherence pathways and if clinician shows good adherence they give reimbursements.

Charles:  Integra is a cloud based care platform focused on oncology and urology and allow clinicians to practice value based care. Providers must now focus on total cost including ER visits, end of life and therapies (which is half of total cost in US).  The actionable ways to reduce costs is by reducing ER visits.  What is working? Data on reimbursements models is very accurate so practices can dig into data and find effieciencies.  However most practices do not have the analytics to do this.

  • care navigation
  • care path based treatment choices
  • enhanced patient access and experience

What is not working

  • data not structured so someone has to do manual curation of records
  • flawed logic based on plurality of visits but physician doesn’t know who else they saw
  • target pricing not taking into account high prices of new therapies
  • lack of timely reporting either by patient or physician
  • insufficient reimbursements
  • technology limitations

 

4:10- 4:55 Breakout: What Patients Want and Need On Their Journey

Cancer patients are living with an existential threat every day. A panel of patients and experts in oncology care management will discuss what’s needed to make the journey for oncology patients a bit more bearable.

sponsored by CEO Council for Growth

Moderator: Amanda Woodworth, M.D., Director of Breast Health, Drexel University College of Medicine
Speakers:
Kezia Fitzgerald, Chief Innovation Officer & Co-Founder, CareAline® Products, LLC
Sara Hayes, Senior Director of Community Development, Health Union @SaraHayes_HU
Katrece Nolen, Cancer Survivor and Founder, Find Cancer Help @KatreceNolen
John Simpkins, Administrative DirectorService Line Director of the Cancer Center, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia @ChildrensPhila

 

Kezia: was a cancer patient as well as her child getting treated at two different places and tough part was coordinating everything including treatments and schedules, working schedules

Katrece: had problem scheduling with oncologists because misdiagnosis and her imaging records were on CD and surgeon could not use the CD

John:  the above are a common frustration among patients at a time when they don’t need the confusion. He feels cancer centers need to coordinate these services better

Sara:  trying to assist people with this type of coordination is very tough even with all the resources

Kazia:  she needed to do all the research on her own because big dichotomy being an adult and a pediatric patient where pediatrics get more information and patient centered care. She felt she felt burdening the physicians if she asked the same questions.  How can we get more interaction with primary care physicians and feel comfortable with their interaction?

John: there is this dichotomy especially on wait times for adults is usually longer.  We can also improve patient experience with counseling patients

Katrece: Just working with a patient navigator is not enough.  The patient needs to take charge of their disease.

Sara: Patient communities can help as sometimes patients learn from other patients.

Amanda:  in breast cancer , navigators are common but must take care they are not only people patients see after a while

John:  at CHOP they also have a financial navigator.  On the adult side there are on call financial navigators.  Recent change of the high deductible plans are a major problem.  Although new families are starting to become comfortable with the financial navigator

Katrece:  guiding your children through your experience is important.  It was also important for her to advocate for herself as she had three different sites of cancer care to coordinate and multiple teams to coordinate with each other

Amanda:  A common theme seems to be hard trying to find the resources you need.  Why is that?

Kazia:  Sometimes it is hard to talk about your disease because it can be emotionally draining comforting other people who you told about the disease and they are being empathetic.  Sometimes they want to keep their ‘journey’ to themselves

John:  A relative kept her disease secret because she didn’t want to burden others…. a common cancer patient concern

Sara: Moderation of a social group is necessary to keep it a safe space and prevent trollers (like in Facebook support groups).

Kazia:  most group members will get together and force those trollers out of the group

Katrece: alot of anxiety after treatment ends, patient feels like being dropped on the floor like they don’t get support after treatment.  If there were survivorship navigators might be helpful

Amanda: for breast cancer they do a Survivor Care Package but just a paper packet, patients do appreciate it but a human coordinator would be a great idea

 

 

 

 

Please follow on Twitter using the following #hashtags and @pharma_BI

#MCConverge

#cancertreatment

#healthIT

#innovation

#precisionmedicine

#healthcaremodels

#personalizedmedicine

#healthcaredata

And at the following handles:

@pharma_BI

@medcitynews

 

Please see related articles on Live Coverage of Previous Meetings on this Open Access Journal

LIVE – Real Time – 16th Annual Cancer Research Symposium, Koch Institute, Friday, June 16, 9AM – 5PM, Kresge Auditorium, MIT

Real Time Coverage and eProceedings of Presentations on 11/16 – 11/17, 2016, The 12th Annual Personalized Medicine Conference, HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL, Joseph B. Martin Conference Center, 77 Avenue Louis Pasteur, Boston

Tweets Impression Analytics, Re-Tweets, Tweets and Likes by @AVIVA1950 and @pharma_BI for 2018 BioIT, Boston, 5/15 – 5/17, 2018

BIO 2018! June 4-7, 2018 at Boston Convention & Exhibition Center

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/press-coverage/

 

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Live Conference Coverage Medcity Converge 2018 Philadelphia: Clinical Trials and Mega Health Mergers

Reporter: Stephen J. Williams, PhD

1:30 – 2:15 PM Clinical Trials 2.0

The randomized, controlled clinical trial is the gold standard, but it may be time for a new model. How can patient networks and new technology be leveraged to boost clinical trial recruitment and manage clinical trials more efficiently?

Moderator: John Reites, Chief Product Officer, Thread @johnreites
Speakers:
Andrew Chapman M.D., Chief of Cancer Services , Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center, Thomas Jefferson University Hospital
Michelle Longmire, M.D., Founder, Medable @LongmireMD
Sameek Roychowdhury MD, PhD, Medical Oncologist and Researcher, Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center @OSUCCC_James

 

Michele: Medable is creating a digital surrogate biomarker for short term end result for cardiology clinical trials as well as creating a virtual site clinical trial design (independent of geography)

Sameek:  OSU is developing RNASeq tests for oncogenic fusions that are actionable

John: ability to use various technologies to conduct telehealth and tele-trials.  So why are we talking about Clinical Trials 2.0?

Andrew: We are not meeting many patients needs.  The provider also have a workload that prevents from the efficient running of a clinical trial.

Michele:  Personalized medicine: what is the framework how we conduct clinical trials in this new paradigm?

Sameek: How do we find those rare patients outside of a health network?  A fragmented health system is hurting patient recruitment efforts.

Wout: The Christmas Tree paradigm: collecting data points based on previous studies may lead to unnecessary criteria for patient recruitment

Sameek:  OSU has a cancer network (Orion) that has 95% success rate of recruitment.  Over Orion network sequencing performed at $10,000 per patient, cost reimbursed through network.  Network helps pharma companies find patients and patients to find drugs

Wout: reaching out to different stakeholders

John: what he sees in 2.0 is use of tech.  They took 12 clinic business but they integrated these sites and was able to benefit patient experience… this helped in recruitment into trials.  Now after a patient is recruited, how 2.0 model works?

Sameek:  since we work with pharma companies, what if we bring in patients from all over the US.  how do we continue to take care of them?

Andrew: utilizing a technology is critically important for tele-health to work and for tele-clinical trials to work

Michele:  the utilization of tele-health by patients is rather low.

Wout:  We are looking for insights into the data.  So we are concentrated on collecting the data and not decision trees.

John: What is a barrier to driving Clinical Trial 2.0?

Andrew: The complexity is a barrier to the patient.  Need to show the simplicity of this.  Need to match trials within a system.

Saleem: Data sharing incentives might not be there or the value not recognized by all players.  And it is hard to figure out how to share the data in the most efficient way.

Wout: Key issue when think locally and act globally but healthcare is the inverse of this as there are so many stakeholders but that adoption by all stakeholders take time

Michele: accessibility of healthcare data by patients is revolutionary.  The medical training in US does not train doctors in communicating a value of a trial

John: we are in a value-driven economy.  You have to give alot to get something in this economy. Final comments?

Saleem: we need fundamental research on the validity of clinical trials 2.0.

Wout:  Use tools to mine manually but don’t do everything manually, not underlying tasks

Andrew: Show value to patient

2:20-3:00 PM CONVERGEnce on Steroids: Why Comcast and Independence Blue Cross?

This year has seen a great deal of convergence in health care.  One of the most innovative collaborations announced was that of Cable and Media giant Comcast Corporation and health plan Independence Blue Cross.  This fireside chat will explore what the joint venture is all about, the backstory of how this unlikely partnership came to be, and what it might mean for our industry.

sponsored by Independence Blue Cross @IBX 

Moderator: Tom Olenzak, Managing Director Strategic Innovation Portfolio, Independence Blue Cross @IBX
Speakers:
Marc Siry, VP, Strategic Development, Comcast
Michael Vennera, SVP, Chief Information Officer, Independence Blue Cross

Comcast and Independence Blue Cross Blue Shield are teaming together to form an independent health firm to bring various players in healthcare onto a platform to give people a clear path to manage their healthcare.  Its not just about a payer and information system but an ecosystem within Philadelphia and over the nation.

Michael:  About 2015 at a health innovation conference they came together to produce a demo on how they envision the future of healthcare.

Marc: When we think of a customer we think of the household. So we thought about aggregating services to people in health.  How do people interact with their healthcare system?

What are the risks for bringing this vision to reality?

Michael: Key to experience is how to connect consumer to caregiver.

How do we aggregate the data, and present it in a way to consumer where it is actionable?

How do we help the patient to know where to go next?

Marc: Concept of ubiquity, not just the app, nor asking the provider to ask patient to download the app and use it but use our platform to expand it over all forms of media. They did a study with an insurer with metabolic syndrome and people’s viewing habits.  So when you can combine the expertise of IBX and the scale of a Comcast platform you can provide great amount of usable data.

Michael: Analytics will be a prime importance of the venture.

Tom:  We look at lots of companies that try to pitch technologies but they dont understand healthcare is a human problem not a tech problem.  What have you learned?

Marc: Adoption rate of new tech by doctors is very low as they are very busy.  Understanding the clinicians workflow is important and how to not disrupt their workflow was humbling for us.

Michael:  The speed at which big tech companies can integrate and innovate new technologies is very rapid, something we did not understand.  We want to get this off the ground locally but want to take this solution national and globally.

Marc:  We are not in competition with local startups but we are looking to work with them to build scale and operability so startups need to show how they can scale up.  This joint venture is designed to look at these ideas.  However this will take a while before we open up the ecosystem until we can see how they would add value. There are also challenges with small companies working with large organizations.

 

Please follow on Twitter using the following #hashtags and @pharma_BI

#MCConverge

#cancertreatment

#healthIT

#innovation

#precisionmedicine

#healthcaremodels

#personalizedmedicine

#healthcaredata

And at the following handles:

@pharma_BI

@medcitynews

 

Please see related articles on Live Coverage of Previous Meetings on this Open Access Journal

LIVE – Real Time – 16th Annual Cancer Research Symposium, Koch Institute, Friday, June 16, 9AM – 5PM, Kresge Auditorium, MIT

Real Time Coverage and eProceedings of Presentations on 11/16 – 11/17, 2016, The 12th Annual Personalized Medicine Conference, HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL, Joseph B. Martin Conference Center, 77 Avenue Louis Pasteur, Boston

Tweets Impression Analytics, Re-Tweets, Tweets and Likes by @AVIVA1950 and @pharma_BI for 2018 BioIT, Boston, 5/15 – 5/17, 2018

BIO 2018! June 4-7, 2018 at Boston Convention & Exhibition Center

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/press-coverage/

 

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Reporter: Stephen J. Williams, PhD

10:00-10:45 AM The Davids vs. the Cancer Goliath Part 1

Startups from diagnostics, biopharma, medtech, digital health and emerging tech will have 8 minutes to articulate their visions on how they aim to tame the beast.

Start Time End Time Company
10:00 10:08 Belong.Life
10:09 10:17 Care+Wear
10:18 10:26 OncoPower
10:27 10:35 PolyAurum LLC
10:36 10:44 Seeker Health

Speakers:
Karthik Koduru, MD, Co-Founder and Chief Oncologist, OncoPower
Eliran Malki, Co-Founder and CEO, Belong.Life
Chaitenya Razdan, Co-founder and CEO, Care+Wear @_crazdan
Debra Shipley Travers, President & CEO, PolyAurum LLC @polyaurum
Sandra Shpilberg, Founder and CEO, Seeker Health @sandrashpilberg

Belong Life

  • 10,000 cancer patients a month helping patients navigate cancer care with Belong App
  • Belong Eco system includes all their practitioners and using a trigger based content delivery (posts, articles etc)
  • most important taking unstructured health data (images, social activity, patient compilance) and converting to structured data

Care+Wear

personally design picc line cover for oncology patients

partners include NBA Major league baseball, Oscar de la Renta,

designs easy access pic line gowns and shirts

OncoPower :Digital Health in a Blockchain Ecosystem

problems associated with patient adherence and developed a product to address this

  1. OncoPower Blockchain: HIPAA compliant using the coin Oncopower security token to incentiavize patients and oncologists to consult with each other or oncologists with tumor boards; this is not an initial coin offering

PolyArum

  • spinout from UPENN; developing a nanoparticle based radiation therapy; glioblastoma muse model showed great response with gold based nanoparticle and radiation
  • they see enhanced tumor penetration, and retention of the gold nanoparticles
  • however most nanoparticles need to be a large size greater than 5 nm to see effect so they used a polymer based particle; see good uptake but excretion past a week so need to re-dose with Au nanoparticles
  • they are looking for capital and expect to start trials in 2020

Seeker Health

  • tying to improve the efficiency of clinical trial enrollment
  • using social networks to find the patients to enroll in clinical trials
  • steps they use 1) find patients on Facebook, Google, Twitter 2) engage patient screen 3) screening at clinical sites
  • Seeker Portal is a patient management system: patients referred to a clinical site now can be tracked

11:00- 11:45 AM Breakout: How to Scale Precision Medicine

The potential for precision medicine is real, but is limited by access to patient datasets. How are government entities, hospitals and startups bringing the promise of precision medicine to the masses of oncology patients

Moderator: Sandeep Burugupalli, Senior Manager, Real World Data Innovation, Pfizer @sandeepburug
Speakers:
Ingo ​Chakravarty, President and CEO, Navican @IngoChakravarty
Eugean Jiwanmall, Senior Research Analyst for Medical Policy & Technology Evaluation , Independence Blue Cross @IBX
Andrew Norden, M.D., Chief Medical Officer, Cota @ANordenMD
Ankur Parikh M.D, Medical Director of Precision Medicine, Cancer Treatment Centers of America @CancerCenter

Ingo: data is not ordered, only half of patients are tracked in some database, reimbursement a challenge

Eugean: identifying mutations as patients getting more comprehensive genomic coverage, clinical trials are expanding more rapidly as seen in 2018 ASCO

Ingo: general principals related to health outcomes or policy or reimbursement.. human studies are paramount but payers may not allowing for general principals (i.e. an Alk mutation in lung cancer and crizotanib treatment may be covered but maybe not for glioblastoma or another cancer containing similar ALK mutation; payers still depend on clinical trial results)

Andrew: using gene panels and NGS but only want to look for actionable targets; they establish an expert panel which reviews these NGS sequence results to determine actionable mutations

Ankur:  they have molecular tumor boards but still if want to prescribe off label and can’t find a clinical trial there is no reimbursement

Andrew: going beyond actionable mutations, although many are doing WES (whole exome sequencing) can we use machine learning to see if there are actionable data from a WES

Ingo: we forget in datasets is that patients have needs today and we need those payment systems and structures today

Eugean: problem is the start from cost (where the cost starts at and was it truly medically necessary)

Norden: there are not enough data sharing to make a decision; an enormous amount of effort to get businesses and technical limitations in data sharing; possibly there are policies needed to be put in place to assimilate datasets and promote collaborations

Ingo: need to take out the middle men between sequencing of patient tumor and treatment decision; middle men are taking out value out of the ‘supply chain’;

Andrew: PATIENTS DON’T OWN their DATA but MOST clinicians agree THEY SHOULD

Ankur: patients are willing to share data but the HIPAA compliance is a barrier

 

11:50- 12:30 AM Fireside Chat with Michael Pellini, M.D.

Building a Precision Medicine Business from the Ground Up: An Operating and Venture Perspective

Dr. Pellini has spent more than 20 years working on the operating side of four companies, each of which has pushed the boundaries of the standard of care. He will describe his most recent experience at Foundation Medicine, at the forefront of precision medicine, and how that experience can be leveraged on the venture side, where he now evaluates new healthcare technologies.

Speaker:
Michael Pellini, M.D., Managing Partner, Section 32 and Chairman, Foundation Medicine @MichaelPellini

Roche just bought Foundation Medicine for $2.5 billion.  They negotiated over 7 months but aside from critics they felt it was a great deal because it gives them, as a diagnostic venture, the international reach and biotech expertise.  Foundation Medicine offered Roche expertise on the diagnostic space including ability to navigate payers and regulatory aspects of the diagnostic business.  He feels it benefits all aspects of patient care and the work they do with other companies.

Moderatore: Roche is doing multiple deals to ‘own’ a disease state.

Dr. Pellini:  Roche is closing a deal with Flatiron just like how Merck closed deals with genomics companies.  He feels best to build the best company on a stand alone basis and provide for patients, then good things will happen.  However the problem of achieving scale for Precision Medicine is reimbursement by payers.  They still have to keep collecting data and evolving services to suit pharma.  They didn’t know if there model would work but when he met with FDA in 2011 they worked with Precision Medicine, said collect the data and we will keep working with you,

However the payers aren’t contributing to the effort.  They need to assist some of the young companies that can’t raise the billion dollars needed for all the evidence that payers require.  Precision Medicine still have problems, even though they have collected tremendous amounts of data and raised significant money.  From the private payer perspective there is no clear roadmap for success.

They recognized that the payers would be difficult but they had a plan but won’t invest in companies that don’t have a plan for getting reimbursement from payers.

Moderator: What is section 32?

Pellini:  Their investment arm invests in the spectrum of precision healtcare companies including tech companies.  They started with a digital path imaging system that went from looking through a scope and now looking at a monitor with software integrated with medical records. Section 32 has $130 million under management and may go to $400 Million but they want to stay small.

Pellini: we get 4-5 AI pitches a week.

Moderator: Are you interested in companion diagnostics?

Pellini:  There may be 24 expected 2018 drug approvals and 35% of them have a companion diagnostic (CDX) with them.  however going out ten years 70% may have a CDX associated with them.  Payers need to work with companies to figure out how to pay with these CDXs.

 

 

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  • More than 77 percent of patients in the REMfresh® Patient Reported Outcomes DURation (REMDUR) study reported achieving 6 or more hours of sleep after taking REMfresh®, the first continuous release and absorption melatonin (CRA-melatonin)
  • More than 91 percent experienced improvements in sleep onset, sleep maintenance and total sleep quality, after taking REMfresh® (CRA-melatonin)
  • Post-marketing, patient-reported outcomes data reinforces clinical trial evidence demonstrating the potential of non-prescription REMfresh®, as a new, non-prescription, drug-free hypnotic (sleep) product designed to achieve 7-hour sleep
  • New data confirms previously presented SLEEP 2017 study showing the patented Ion Powered Pump (IPP) technology in REMfresh® helps extend melatonin-targeted sleep maintenance levels in the body from 3.7 hours (with marketed immediate-release melatonin) to 6.7 hours, while mimicking the pattern of the body’s natural melatonin blood levels during the nightly sleep cycle

Real Time Coverage at SLEEP 2018 meeting, Baltimore.

Reporters: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN, and Gail S. Thornton, MA

BALTIMORE – (June 6, 2018) – A patient-reported outcomes study presented at SLEEP 2018 provides confirmatory real-world evidence of the previously peer-reviewed and presented data showing the 7-hour action of REMfresh®, a new product for sleep. REMfresh® Ion-Powered Melatoninis the first and only, continuous release and absorption melatonin (CRA-melatonin) to mimic the body’s own 7-hour Mesa Wave, the natural pattern of melatonin blood levels during a normal night’s sleep cycle. This induces sleep onset and provides lasting and restorative sleep for up to 7 hours.

This new data shows a correlative relationship between a 7-hour Mesa Wave pharmacokinetic (PK) profile and real-world evidence of improvements in sleep duration, onset, maintenance and sleep quality after taking REMfresh® (CRA-melatonin).

The post-marketing REMfresh® Patient Reported Outcomes DURation (REMDUR) study was presented at SLEEP 2018, the 32nd Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies (APSS), LLC, a joint partnership of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) and the Sleep Research Society (SRS).

 

Brodner and Seiden

Pictured here is David C. Brodner, M.D., and David J. Seiden, M.D., FAASM, after presenting the latest study data which found REMfresh is the first and only continuous release and absorption melatonin™ to mimic the body’s own 7-hour Mesa Wave™.

 

In a sample of 500 patients on REMfresh® (CRA-melatonin) responding to an online survey, 77.6 percent achieved 6 or more hours of sleep compared to 23.6 percent who slept that duration prior to taking REMfresh® (p<.0001). A vast majority of respondents also reported a major or moderate improvement in sleep onset (91.6 percent, p<.0001), sleep maintenance (94.8 percent, p<.0001) and total sleep quality (97.2 percent, p<.0001). More than three-quarters (76.6 percent) of patients indicated they take REMfresh® (CRA-melatonin) nightly. The proportion of patients reporting nightly CRA-melatonin use was significantly greater than the proportion of patients with less than nightly use (p<.0001). Most importantly, over 98 percent of patients reported they were very likely or likely to continue taking REMfresh® (CRA-melatonin) to treat their sleep complaints.

“The real-world evidence reported today in REMDUR provides further confirmation that REMfresh® represents a significant advance in the use of melatonin as a baseline therapy for treating sleep complaints,” said David C. Brodner, M.D., a leading sleep specialist who is Double Board-Certified in Otolaryngology — Head and Neck Surgery and Sleep Medicine, founder and principle Physician at the Center for Sinus, Allergy, and Sleep Wellness, in Palm Beach County, Florida, and Senior Medical Advisor for Physician’s Seal, LLC®.

“REMfresh® Ion-Powered Melatoninhas been shown to be an effective drug-free solution that is now available to the millions of Americans in need of a good night’s sleep, many of whom seek new therapies that will induce sleep and keep them asleep until the morning, without causing residual effects they’ll feel the next day. With its unique delivery system that imitates the body’s own natural sleep pattern, REMfresh® has revolutionized the role of melatonin, when delivered in the CRA form. It is no longer just a treatment for jet lag, but the CRA-melatonin found in REMfresh® has been shown to provide substantial relief to individuals having nightly sleep challenges,” said Dr. Brodner.

The scientifically advanced, patented delivery system in REMfresh® (CRA-melatonin), called Ion Powered Pump (IPP™) technology, replicates the way in which the body naturally releases and absorbs melatonin, unlike conventional melatonin sleep products. Since REMfresh® is not a drug, there is no drug hangover.

Nearly one-third of U.S. adults sleep less than the recommended seven hours daily.[1],[2] Increasing evidence suggests an association between sub-optimal sleep duration and adverse health outcomes including a higher risk of diabetes, hypertension, heart attack, stroke, obesity and depression.[3] A pooled analysis of 16 studies and over one million patients found short sleep duration corresponded with greater risk of morbidity and mortality.[4]

 REMDUR Study Design

The post-marketing REMfresh® Patient Reported Outcomes DURation (REMDUR) study was designed to obtain real-world evidence about patients’ sleep patterns, duration of sleep before and after REMfresh® (CRA-melatonin), daily REMfresh® (CRA-melatonin) use, onset of action, sleep maintenance, quality of sleep, and overall satisfaction with REMfresh® (CRA-melatonin).

Patients with sleep disturbances in the general population who received a sample of CRA-melatonin (REMfresh®) from their physicians were invited to complete a 12-question survey. Survey responses were received from 500 patients.

Confirmation of the REMAKT Clinical Study

REMDUR confirmed clinical trial findings from REMAKT (REM Absorption Kinetics Trial), a U.S.-based randomized, crossover pharmacokinetic (PK) evaluation study in healthy, non-smoking adults that compared REMfresh® (CRA-melatonin) with a market-leading, immediate-release melatonin (IR-melatonin).[5]

The study results, peer-reviewed and presented last year at SLEEP 2017, showed that melatonin levels with REMfresh® (CRA-melatonin) exceeded the targeted sleep maintenance threshold for a median of 6.7 hours, compared with 3.7 hours with the leading IR-melatonin. Conversely, the levels of the market-leading IR-melatonin formulation dramatically increased 23 times greater than the targeted levels of exogenous melatonin for sleep maintenance and had a rapid decline in serum levels that did not allow melatonin levels to be maintained beyond 4 hours.

The REMfresh® (CRA-melatonin) studies build upon the body of evidence from prolonged-release melatonin (PR-M), marketed in Europe, which demonstrated in well-conducted, placebo-controlled studies, statistically significant improvement in sleep quality, morning alertness, sleep latency and quality of life in patients aged 55 years and older compared with placebo. REMfresh® (CRA-melatonin) was designed to overcome the challenges of absorption in the intestines, thereby extending the continual and gradual release pattern of melatonin through the night (known as the Mesa Wave, a flat-topped hill with steep sides). There was a fast time to Cmax, which is anticipated to result in improved sleep onset, while the extended median plateau time to 6.7 hours and rapid fall-off in plasma levels at the end of the Mesa Wave, may help to improve sleep maintenance and morning alertness.

Conventional melatonin products have had challenges at mimicking the profile of a Mesa Wave™. The scientific work behind REMfresh® (CRA-melatonin) sought to overcome these challenges by having the melatonin formulation in a matrix that maintains a patented, solubility-enhancing pH environment to help with the transport to the brush border of the gut and its subsequent absorption.

Designed as a hydrogel matrix tablet, REMfresh® (CRA-melatonin) provides rapid release of the melatonin from the surface of the tablet, as the hydrogel release-controlling matrix is setting up in the acidic environment (pH of 1 to 3.5) in the stomach. As the tablet moves into the higher pH (5.5 to 6.5) environment of the small-intestine, which is above the pKa of melatonin (~4.0), the acidic moiety in the tablet is designed to maintain the pH within the tablet below 4.0 for 7+ hours. The hydrogel matrix, after proper hydration, allows continuous release of the active melatonin and acidic moiety into the lumen of the intestines.

Melatonin: The Body’s Natural Sleep Ingredient

Melatonin is produced by the pineal gland in the brain and is the body’s natural sleep ingredient. Melatonin levels normally begin to rise in the mid-to late evening and remain high for the majority of the night. Levels begin to decline towards early morning, as the body’s wake cycle is triggered. As people age, melatonin levels can drop by as much as 70 percent[6] and their bodies may no longer produce enough melatonin to ensure adequate sleep.

Other available products, such as immediate-release melatonin, help initiate the onset of sleep but are usually unable to sustain prolonged sleep maintenance due to an immediate burst of melatonin, which is quickly degraded due to its relatively short half-life (60 minutes). Absorption in the lower digestive tract is limited by melatonin’s limited ability to be absorbed in a low acidity or neutral pH environment.

Importance of Sleep

Sleep is an essential part of every person’s life. The body requires a certain amount of sleep in order to properly rest, repair and renew itself. Sleep is customarily divided in four different stages, with each stage having a different effect. These four stages are:

N1, N2, deep sleep and REM sleep. The body moves among these four stages several times while asleep. If sleep is disrupted for any reason, a person’s body may not have a chance to properly restore itself, especially if it is struggling to get to the later stages, called deep sleep and REM sleep. Studies have shown that sound and sufficient sleep is important for learning, memory and a healthy immune system. A regular pattern of deep sleep and REM sleep will help a person begin the next day feeling refreshed and ready to go.

About Non-Prescription REMfresh®

REMfresh® (CRA-melatonin) is the first and only, continuous release and absorption formulation of UltraMel® melatonin (available as 2 mg and 5 mg and with a 0.5 mg anticipated in the second half of 2018). UltraMel® melatonin is a high-quality, 99 percent ultra-pure melatonin sourced from Western Europe exclusively for Physician’s Seal®.

REMfresh® (CRA-melatonin) is a dietary supplement and is regulated under the Federal Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act, which does not require pre-approval. Melatonin has been in common use for over two decades and has a well-established profile of safe use by millions of people around the world. As with all supplements, individual results may vary.

REMfresh® (CRA-melatonin) is non-habit forming and does not contain narcotics, hypnotics, barbiturates, sedatives, antihistamines, alcohol or other harsh or additive chemicals. The usual adult recommended dose is 1-2 tablets 30-60 minutes before bedtime. Follow specific dosing instructions found on the back of the box for proper use of supplements.

REMfresh® (CRA-melatonin) is available at Walmart, Rite Aid and CVS/pharmacy. In 2017 REMfresh® was ranked as  the #1 recommended brand for sleep management by sleep doctors[7].

About Physician’s Seal®

Physician’s Seal® is the innovator of REMfresh®, the first and only continuous release and absorption, 99 percent ultra-pure melatonin (CRA-melatonin) that mimics the way the body naturally releases and maintains melatonin over a 7-hour period. Physician’s Seal®, founded in 2015, is a privately held company based in Boca Raton, Florida. It is committed to bringing cutting-edge life science applications to doctors and their patients. For more information, visit www.remfresh.com and connect with us on Facebook and You Tube.

Its sister subsidiary, IM HealthScience® (IMH) is the innovator of IBgard® and FDgard® for the dietary management of Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) and Functional Dyspepsia (FD), respectively. In 2017, IMH added Fiber Choice®, a line of prebiotic fibers, to its product line via an acquisition. IMH® is a privately held company based in Boca Raton, Florida. It was founded in 2010 by a team of highly experienced pharmaceutical research and development and management executives. The company is dedicated to developing products to address overall health and wellness, including conditions with a high unmet medical need, such as digestive health. The IM HealthScience® advantage comes from developing products based on its patented, targeted-delivery technologies called Site Specific Targeting® (SST®). For more information, visit www.imhealthscience.com to learn about the company, or www.IBgard.com,  www.FDgard.com,and www.FiberChoice.com.

This information is for educational purposes only and is not meant to be a substitute for the advice of a physician or other health care professional. You should not use this information for diagnosing a health problem or disease. The company will strive to keep information current and consistent but may not be able to do so at any specific time. Generally, the most current information can be found on www.remfresh.com. Individual results may vary.

Data Presented at SLEEP 2018 Poster Session on Sleep Maintenance/Sleep Quality

Tuesday, June 5, 2018, 5-7pm

  • (Abstract 0419, Poster Board #104) Improvement in Sleep Maintenance and Sleep Quality with Ion Powered Pump Continuous Release and Absorption Melatonin: Results from a Self-Reported Patient Outcomes Study
    • David J. Seiden, M.D., FAASM, David C. Brodner, M.D., Syed M. Shah, Ph.D.

Visit Physician’s Seal® at booth 220 to learn more about REMfresh®.

The abstract is published in an online supplement of the journal, Sleep, which is available at http://www.sleepmeeting.org/docs/default-source/default-document-library/abstractbook2018.pdf?sfvrsn=2

[1] Ford, E.S., Cunningham, T.J., & Croft, J.B. (2015, May 1). Trends in Self-Reported Sleep Duration among US Adults from 1985 to 2012. Sleep, 38(5):829-832. doi: 10.5665/sleep.4684.

[2] Watson, N.F., Badr, M.S., Belenky, G., Bliwise, D.L., Buxton, G.M., Buysse, D.,…Tasali, E. (2015). Joint Consensus Statement of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and Sleep Research Society on the Recommended Amount of Sleep for a Healthy Adult: Methodology and Discussion. Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, 11(8):931-952. doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.158.11.1856.

[3] Colten, H.R., & Altevogt, B.M. (Eds). (2006). Sleep Disorders and Sleep Deprivation: An Unmet Public Health Problem.  Institute of Medicine (US) Committee on Sleep Medicine and Research. Washington, DC: National Academies Press (US). doi: https://doi.org/10.17226/11617.

[4] Cappuccio, F.P., D’Elia, L., Strazzullo, P.,&  Miller, M.A. (2010). Sleep duration and all-cause mortality: a systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective studies. Sleep, 33(5):585-592

[5] For this clinical trial, the head-to-head comparison was with the 5 mg form; a 2 mg form of the comparator was not available.

[6] Zisapel, N. (2010). Melatonin and sleep. The Open Neuroendocrinology Journal, 3: 85-95.

[7] Among primary care physicians with a certification in sleep disorders who recommended a brand of modified-release melatonin. Quintiles IMS ProVoice July-September 2017 survey.

REFERENCE/SOURCE

Physician’s Seal® and REMfresh® (www.remfresh.com)

Dr. David C. Brodner, Center for Sinus, Allergy, and Sleep Wellness (http://www.brodnermd.com/sleep-hygiene.html)

Other related articles published in this Open Access Online Scientific Journal include the following:

2017

Ultra-Pure Melatonin Product Helps Maintain Sleep for Up to 7 Hours

Ultra-Pure Melatonin Product Helps Maintain Sleep for Up to 7 Hours

2016

Sleep Science

Genetic link to sleep and mood disorders

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2016/02/27/genetic-link-to-sleep-and-mood-disorders/

2015

Sleep quality, amyloid and cognitive decline

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2015/10/31/sleep-quality-amyloid-and-cognitive-decline/

2013

Day and Night Variation in Melatonin Level affects Plasma Membrane Redox System in Red Blood Cells

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/02/23/httpwww-ncbi-nlm-nih-govpubmed22561555/

 

Read Full Post »

Curator: Gail S. Thornton, M.A.

Co-Editor: The VOICES of Patients, Hospital CEOs, HealthCare Providers, Caregivers and Families: Personal Experience with Critical Care and Invasive Medical Procedures

  •  In a national survey, the Fiber Choice® line of chewable prebiotic fiber tablets and gummies, achieved the #1 share of gastroenterologist (GE) recommendations, more than four times greater than that for the nearest branded competitor
  • Fiber Choice contains a well-studied prebiotic fiber that promotes regularity and supports the growth of beneficial microorganisms for general digestive health
  • The convenience, taste and efficacy of Fiber Choice, makes it a GE-endorsed choice toward helping address the “fiber gap” in American diets

 Boca Raton, Fla. – (June 3, 2018) – IM HealthScience® (IMH), innovators of medical foods and dietary supplements, today announced a high-quality and replicated nationwide survey conducted among a representative and projectible sample of U.S. gastroenterologists, which revealed Fiber Choice® as the #1-recommended chewable prebiotic fiber brand.

The results of a ProVoice survey, fielded in May 2018 by IQVIA, showed Fiber Choice as the leader by far. Its share of gastroenterologist endorsements was more than four times greater than that of its nearest branded competitor.

Less than 3 percent of Americans get the recommended minimum amount of fiber, and 97 percent need to increase their fiber intake[1]. Although the recommended daily fiber intake is 25 to 38 grams[2], most Americans only get about half that amount. This “fiber gap” reflects a diet with relatively few high-fiber foods, such as fruits, vegetables, nuts, legumes and whole-grains, and is large enough for the U.S. government to deem it a public health concern for most of the U.S. population.

To help bridge this gap, gastroenterologists recommend fibers including Fiber Choice chewable tablets and gummies. For doctors, it’s a simple, convenient and tasty way to help their patients get the fiber needed for overall good digestive health.

“Dietary fiber is known for keeping our bodies regular,” said Michael Epstein, M.D., FACG, AGAF, a leading gastroenterologist and Chief Medical Advisor of IM HealthScience. “Most importantly, it’s essential that you get enough fiber in your diet. One way to do that is to supplement your daily intake of dietary fiber with natural, prebiotic fiber supplements.”

Inulin, the 100 percent natural prebiotic soluble fiber in Fiber Choice, has been studied extensively and has been shown to support laxation and overall digestive health as well as glycemic control, lowered cholesterol, improved cardiovascular health, weight control and better calcium absorption.

Fiber Choice can be found in the digestive aisle at Walmart, CVS, Target, Rite Aid and many other drug and food retailers.

About ProVoice Survey
ProVoice has the largest sample size of any professional healthcare survey in the U.S., with nearly 60,000 respondents across physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, optometrists, dentists, and hygienists, measuring recommendations across more than 120 over-the-counter categories. Manufacturers use ProVoice for claim substantiation, promotion measurement, and HCP targeting.

IQVIA fielded replicated surveys in April 2018 and May 2018 respectively among U.S. gastroenterologists for IM HealthScience. The ProVoice survey methodology validated the claim at a 95 percent confidence level that “Fiber Choice® is the #1 gastroenterologist-recommended chewable prebiotic fiber supplement.”

About Fiber Choice®

The Fiber Choice® brand of chewables and gummies is made of inulin [pronounced: in-yoo-lin], a natural fiber found in many fruits and vegetables. Inulin works by helping to build healthy, good bacteria in the colon, while keeping food moving through the digestive system. This action has a beneficial and favorable effect in softening stools and improving bowel function.

Research shows that the digestive system does more than digest food; it plays a central role in the immune system. The healthy bacteria that live in the digestive tract promote immune system function, so prebiotic fiber helps nourish the body. Inulin also has secondary benefits, too, of possibly lowering cholesterol, balancing blood chemistry and regulating appetite, which can help reduce calorie intake and play a supporting role in weight management.

The usual adult dosage with Fiber Choice Chewable tablets is two tablets up to three times a day and for Fiber Choice Fiber Gummies is two gummies up to six per day.

About IM HealthScience®

IM HealthScience® (IMH) is the innovator of IBgard and FDgard for the dietary management of Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) and Functional Dyspepsia (FD), respectively. In 2017, IMH added Fiber Choice®, a line of prebiotic fibers, to its product line via an acquisition. The sister subsidiary of IMH, Physician’s Seal®, also provides REMfresh®, a well-known continuous release and absorption melatonin (CRA-melatonin™) supplement for sleep. IMH is a privately held company based in Boca Raton, Florida. It was founded in 2010 by a team of highly experienced pharmaceutical research and development and management executives. The company is dedicated to developing products to address overall health and wellness, including conditions with a high unmet medical need, such as digestive health. The IM HealthScience advantage comes from developing products based on its patented, targeted-delivery technologies called Site Specific Targeting (SST). For more information, visit www.imhealthscience.com to learn about the company, or www.IBgard.com,  www.FDgard.comwww.FiberChoice.com, and www.Remfresh.com.

This information is for educational purposes only and is not meant to be a substitute for the advice of a physician or other health care professional. You should not use this information for diagnosing a health problem or disease. The company will strive to keep information current and consistent but may not be able to do so at any specific time. Generally, the most current information can be found on www.fiberchoice.com. Individual results may vary.

SOURCE/REFERENCES

[1] Greger, Michael, M.D., FACLM. (2015, September 29). Where Do You Get Your Fiber? [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://nutritionfacts.org/2015/09/29/where-do-you-get-your-fiber/

[2] Institute of Medicine. 2005. Dietary Reference Intakes for Energy, Carbohydrate, Fiber, Fat, Fatty Acids, Cholesterol, Protein, and Amino Acids. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/10490.

Other related articles published in this Open Access Online Scientific Journal include the following:

2018

Benefits of fiber in diet

Benefits of Fiber in Diet

2016

Nutrition & Aging: Dr. Simin Meydani appointed Vice Provost for Research @Tufts University

Nutrition & Aging: Dr. Simin Meydani appointed Vice Provost for Research @Tufts University

2015

Nutrition Plan

2013

Multivitamins – Don’t help Extend Life or ward off Heart Disease and Improve state of Memory Loss

Multivitamins – Don’t help Extend Life or ward off Heart Disease and Improve state of Memory Loss

Increased Consumption of Dietary Fiber is associated with a significantly Lower Risk of CVD and CHD

Increased Consumption of Dietary Fiber is associated with a significantly Lower Risk of CVD and CHD

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