NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – MediSapiens, a Finnish bioinformatics company specializing in pharmaceutical research and translational genomics, has joined The Pistoia Alliance, a global, non-profit alliance of life science companies, vendors, publishers, and academic groups that work together to lower barriers to innovation. Founded in 2009 by representatives of AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis, and Pfizer, the alliance today has nearly 70 paying member organizations. Some of its key activities include precompetitive projects, where partners collaborate to establish best practices and technology pilots.
Bio Analytical Research Corporation (BARC), the global central laboratory division of Cerba Healthcare, said that Ghent, Belgium-based Biogazelle has joined its network of expert clinical laboratories. This network,which BARC has regularly expanded over the last several years, enables its customers to access a wide range of technologies and expert advice. Biogazelle is a PCR and RNA sequencing service provider that recently established a quality management system based on the international standard ISO/IEC 17025:2005, and extended its quality management system to create a good clinical laboratory practices environment for its services.
Elsevier, part of RELX Group, has acquired Via Oncology, a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based company that provides decision support and best practices in cancer care management, for an undisclosed amount. A former subsidiary of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Via Oncology markets Via Pathways, evidence-based proprietary content developed by committees of leading oncologists that forms the basis of clinical algorithms covering 95 percent of cancer types treated in the US. This content is deployed to physicians and their staff at the point of care through the Via Portal, a patient-specific decision support tool that is integrated with electronic medical records. Elsevier's Clinical Solutions group supports health institutions in improving patient outcomes, reducing clinical errors, and optimizing cost and reimbursements. With Via Oncology, Elsevier will continue to broaden its existing portfolio of solutions to create an integrated offering of end-to-end clinical support and active clinical guidance, the company said.
CancerLinQ and the Association for Molecular Pathology said this week that they have entered into a collaboration. AMP leadership and members will apply their breadth of knowledge to CancerLinQ, the American Society of Clinical Oncology's health information technology platform. Federico Monzon, AMP past president and current chief medical officer of Castle Biosciences, will serve as AMP's representative on the CancerLinQ Oncology Leadership Council. AMP will have the ability to access CancerLinQ Discovery — which provides access to curated sets of statistically de-identified clinical data from the CancerLinQ platform — in order to learn about and analyze the current, real-world state of cancer care.
Genedrive said this week that its revenue for the six months ended Dec. 31, 2017 was £2.6 million ($3.6 million), down 7 percent from £2.8 million in the prior-year period.
The firm noted that its Genedrive diagnostics revenues in that period were £1.3 million, up 8 percent from £1.2 million in the second half of 2016. Its diagnostics revenues came mostly from a US Department of Defense project, and included £1.0 million of development income and £300,000 of product-related sales, the firm said. GeneDrive also noted that it has "made significant strategic and operational progress" in the period with the CE marking of its Genedrive HCV ID Kit; the appointment of Sysmex as its distribution partner in the Asia Pacific and the Europe, Middle East, and Africa regions; and the launch of a Hepatitis C test in Africa.
The firm said that it continues to make good progress towards commercializing its Genedrive HCV ID test and that the test is performing in line with current expectations.
Genedrive's services division generated £1.3 million, down 24 percent from £1.7 million in the second half of 2016. The firm said that it closed the period with cash of £4.6 million, following the receipt of £1.2 million in R&D tax credits in the period.
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