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The Readout Damian Garde

Will investors notice NEJM's spotlight on PhaseBio?

It’s hardly an investor darling: Shares for PhaseBio, a small Pennsylvania-based firm, are down 25 percent since its IPO just five months back. However, the New England Journal of Medicine has directed a spotlight on the tiny biotech — highlighting how its experimental drug, PB2452, has shown efficacy in controlling bleeds caused by AstraZeneca’s heart drug, Brilinta. 

While doctors tell STAT’s Matt Herper that PhaseBio’s drug could indeed have practical use, others argue that the subset of patients benefitting is small: Specifically those who are taking Brilinta and need surgery, or are having excessive bleeding for another reason. Will investors bite? 

Read more.

New use for the controversial malarial therapy

A couple decades back, Henry Heimlich — most known for inventing the eponymous maneuver — came up with a controversial therapy to treat diseases like AIDS and Lyme disease. It involved injecting the parasite that causes malaria into patients, thereby stimulating their immune system. The theory was discredited, but Heimlich went on to launch trials of the therapy in HIV patients in Mexico and China. 

Now, a scientist who led the Chinese study is using malarial therapy again — this time to treat cancer patients. 

The study has yet to undergo peer review, and many scientists around the world remain deeply wary. 

Read more. 

Using CRISPR to beat HIV

Although antiretroviral drugs work well to keep HIV under control, about one in 10 patients inexplicably retain detectable levels of the virus in their bloodstream. This is thanks to the presence of “repliclones,” cell populations that have the HIV genome burrowed within the exact same spot in their chromosomes, according to a report in Science

Scientists are now pondering whether CRISPR might offer these patients an important tool  — allowing the HIV-linked genetic material embedded in their chromosomes to be cut right out. 

“It’s a science fiction idea that one day may be possible,” National Cancer Institute retrovirologist George Pavlakis told Science. 

A patient's perspective on liquid biopsy

Liquid biopsies are imprecise, and they've proven difficult to perfect. But improving upon them needs to be a critical goal for medicine, patient advocate Grace Cordovano writes for STAT.

To explain why, Cordovano relates her own experience with a traditional biopsy, to confirm a diagnosis of advanced lymphoma. It was a harrowing one — involving a partially collapsed lung, coughed-up blood, chest pain, shortness of breath, and low blood pressure.

After all that, her test results were inconclusive because surgeons were unable to recover enough of a tissue sample. A liquid biopsy (if it worked) would have spared her additional suffering, and maybe saved her money as well.

"It is essential not to underestimate or overlook completely the patient experience, the impact on quality of life, and the costs associated with both traditional and liquid biopsies," she writes.

Read more.

More reads

  • FDA to launch scientific review of implant biocompatibility. (FierceBiotech)
  • Why biotechnology can be the Indian economy's next success story. (Economic Times)

Thanks for reading! More tomorrow,

Damian

Monday, March 18, 2019

STAT

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