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Earlier this week, BDO USA released its Summer 2022 Biotech Brief, taking a look at the state of the biotech industry during this time of wild market swings. The bad news is that the sector hasn’t been spared the rest of the market. Stock prices have decreased to the point that most valuation gains from 2020 have been erased. On the bright side, revenues and profits are both up, which should provide a cushion for biotech companies to continue to invest in R&D. That investment is up, reports BDO, although it’s growing at a slower rate.
The gains of the past two years have also given larger companies a good cash cushion, which could mean that smaller companies with attractive products will have more opportunities to make deals. “We expect to see more deals, including acquisitions and collaboration agreements,” the authors of the report write. “as well as companies selling off assets that are outside of their core area of focus if in need of cash.”
Physicians Would Need Almost 27 Hours A Day To Provide Optimal Patient Care, Per New Study
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In a new study published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, researchers found that in order to provide guideline-recommended care, a primary care physician would require nearly 26.7 hours per day. The results were jarring, indicating that there are literally not enough hours in the day for physicians to abide by all the recommendations that have been stipulated for “ideal patient care,” especially with the significant time challenges that actually exist in a real practice setting.
Read more here.
Deals Of The Week
New Pharma Class: ARCH Venture Partners has partnered with scientists at the Institute of Protein Design to launch new biotechnology company Vilya with a $50 million series A investment.
BioManufacturing: Elevate Bio and the University of Pittsburgh are teaming up to build a new biomanufacturing center in the city to enable cell and gene therapy production.
Mental Health: Alma, which helps independent mental health care providers connect with patients and insurance companies, announced that it has raised a $130 million series D round.
Cancer Care: AI cancer care startup Avenda Health raised a $10 million series B round led by VCapital, with an aim expanding the use of its patient management software.
Immunotherapy: 3T Biosciences, which is developing next-generation immunotherapies for solid tumors, announced it has raised a $40 million series A round.
Noteworthy
The World Health Organization urged countries to up their efforts against monkeypox after finding that the outbreak in Europe has peaked.
Cigna will expand its Obamacare plan to three new states: Texas, Indiana and South Carolina, adding a potential 730,000 new customers in 2023.
The healthcare industry is facing staffing shortages, with the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics finding that over 275,000 additional nurses will be needed in coming years.
The U.S. reported its first monkeypox death on Sunday, which occurred in Texas. The patient was severely immunocompromised, according to local officials.
Coronavirus Updates
On Wednesday, the FDA authorized booster shots from Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech that are specifically targeting the extremely contagious subvariants of omicron. These are “bivalent” shots, targeted at both the original coronavirus and the omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5. The authorization for Pfizer’s shot is everyone 12 and older, while Moderna’s shot is authorized for all adults.
When can you get one of the new boosters? The FDA authorization says that it will be at least two months after your last shot, whether that was a first or second booster–or even the primary series, if you haven’t gotten a booster. The final say in the guidance, though, will come from the CDC, which is expected to sign off on the vaccines later this week in time for the Labor Day holiday.
400 Americans Are Dying Each Day From Covid—Here’s How That Can Become Nearly Zero
ANADOLU AGENCY VIA GETTY IMAGE
Dr. Anand Parekh, chief medical advisor for the Bipartisan Policy Center, explains how the tools are there to nearly eliminate Covid deaths—they just need to be deployed.
Read more here.
Other Coronavirus News
Life expectancy in the U.S. dropped to 76.1 – the lowest it’s ever been. Covid and suicide were two big factors in the decline.
Covid has spread to every part of the world except three places: Turkmenistan, Tokelau (a New Zealand territory) and St Helena (a British territory). However, the World Health Organization believes that Turkmenistan has reported false data.
Moderna sued Pfizer and BioNTech over claims that the two companies infringed Moderna’s patents around its “foundational” mRNA technology when they developed their Covid vaccine.
Researchers found that a decline in doctor visits for maternal and child visits due to Covid-19 may have contributed to 113,962 avoidable deaths.
Across Forbes
California’s Lithium Rush For EV Batteries Hinges On Taming Toxic, Volcanic Brine
NASA’s Headed Back To The Moon And Here Are Innovators That Will Help It Get There
More Than Half Of All Bitcoin Trades Are Fake
What Else We are Reading
When Private Equity Takes Over A Nursing Home (The New Yorker)
10 key questions about monkeypox the world needs to answer (Stat)
Could tiny blood clots cause long COVID’s puzzling symptoms? (Nature)
