Plus: A brain-computer interface without a chip |
In this week’s edition of InnovationRx, we look at the worsening measles outbreak, a clinical trial for a noninvasive brain-computer implant, replacing heart valves with robots and more. (Did someone forward you this email? To get it in your inbox, subscribe here.)
The measles outbreak keeps spreading. In Texas, the epicenter of the disease where one child has died, the number of confirmed cases has now reached 223. Cases have now cropped up in a dozen states, including New Mexico (where an adult who tested positive for the disease has died), New Jersey and Maryland.
Measles is one of the most contagious diseases, yet the rate of protective vaccinations has declined as misinformation about them circulates online. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has called vaccinations a “personal choice,” while talking up Vitamin A, cod liver oil and steroids.
“Mentions of cod liver oil and vitamins [are] just distracting people away from what the single message should be, which is to increase the vaccination rate,” Dr. Amish Adalja, an infectious disease physician and senior scholar with the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, told NPR.As cases continue to rise, some Texas cities are running out of the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine as people look to vaccinate themselves and their children. At Walgreens’ locations in Austin, none of the pharmacists had the MMR vaccine in stock at the end of last week, according to The Guardian. In Ft. Worth and Lubbock, where most of the state’s 23 hospitalized patients are being treated, the vaccines were also scarce. According to the CDC, 90.8% of children across the country have received two doses of the MMR vaccine by age two. That sounds high but measles is so contagious that a vaccination rate of at least 95% is required for herd immunity. In rural Gaines County, the hardest hit area of Texas, the vaccination rate among kindergartners is just 82%. Most of the children who have become sick with measles were unvaccinated. Despite the risks, the National Institutes of Health is canceling or cutting back more than 40 grants for research into why some people are reluctant to be vaccinated and how to increase their uptake, according to an internal email obtained by The Washington Post. |
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| | | This Startup Lets Paralyzed People Use Computers–Without A Chip In Their Head |
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| Rabbi Yitzi Hurwitz has spent a decade communicating with just his eyes. Diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), aka “Lou Gehrig’s disease” in 2013, the rapid loss of muscle control meant that he can only “speak” by tediously spelling out words with an eye chart. It’s as frustrating and demoralizing as you might imagine. One of the 30,000 Americans currently living with ALS (about 5,000 new cases are diagnosed each year), Hurwitz has had few options for relief, though new ones are slowly emerging. Among them is one developed by Andreas Forsland, CEO of Cognixion. It’s a brain-computer interface that can help paralyzed patients interact with computers and communicate. And unlike similar technologies from Elon Musk’s Neuralink, it doesn’t require the surgical implantation in the skull.
The company announced today that it has launched its first clinical trial, which will study the technology with 10 ALS patients. Rabbi Hurwitz, is one, and he’s already training on the device three days a week. Read more at Forbes. |
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| Pharmaceutical giant Gilead released new data, published in The Lancet, that suggests a new formulation of its HIV prophylactic lenacapavir might be effective for an entire year. The new findings come after phase 3 trials of its current formulation showed effectiveness at preventing HIV for six months. The FDA is currently reviewing that formulation for approval. The Lancet study found that patients maintained high levels of the new formulation in their blood after 56 weeks. The company said it plans to launch a phase 3 trial of the new formulation before the end of the year. |
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| Lila Sciences came out of stealth with AI software it said can unlock troves of scientific data and turn it into physical results with $200 million in seed funding from Flagship Pioneering, General Catalyst and others. Cambridge, Mass.-based Flagship founded the company in its labs in 2023 with the goal of creating “scientific superintelligence.” In projects demonstrating the technology, Lila’s AI has generated novel antibodies to fight disease and developed new materials for carbon capture, according to the New York Times. The announcement comes less than a month after Google released its AI “co-scientist.” Other big tech and health companies are developing similar programs, but as TechCrunch reports, many research scientists remain skeptical about the usefulness of these tools. Plus: Elsevier rolled out ScienceDirect AI, a generative AI tool for researchers that allows users to search and get answers from within the full text of 14 million articles and book chapters. The world’s largest platform for peer-reviewed research said that the new tool would help scientists cut their literature research time in half. |
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| Two patients have successfully had their mitral valve, which controls blood flow between the upper and lower chambers of the second side of the heart, replaced by robotic surgery. Most patients who have issues with this valve aren’t good candidates for a replacement surgery with current technology. The robotic arm used in the surgery was developed by Santa Cruz-based Capstan Medical, which developed a way to replace the valve with a catheter-based procedure rather than conventional open heart surgery. |
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| PUBLIC HEALTH + HOSPITALS |
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| Utah will become the first state to ban fluoride in public water systems. Utah’s Republican Governor Spencer Cox said that he would sign a bill to ban its use there, starting in early May, going against public health experts’ recommendations in favor of its use to prevent tooth decay. The mineral strengthens teeth and reduces cavities. Utah will be the first state to ban fluoride, something that HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has railed against since before his confirmation. In a letter to Governor Cox opposing the ban, the American Dental Association wrote that “water fluoridation is listed as one of ten great public health achievements of the last century by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in line with vehicle safety measures, healthier mothers and babies and reduced deaths from coronary heart disease.” |
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| India’s Sun Pharmaceuticals, which is controlled by billionaire Dilip Shanghvi, agreed to acquire U.S.-based biotech company Checkpoint Therapeutics in a deal valued at $355 million. In December, the FDA approved Checkpoint’s drug Unloxcyt, an antibody that treats advanced skin cancer by binding to PDL1, a protein that inhibits the body’s natural immune responses to cancer. The deal is expected to close this summer, pending approval from regulators and Checkpoint’s shareholders. Plus: Jazz Pharmaceuticals plans to acquire Chimerix–and its promising brain cancer drug–for nearly $1 billion. And virtual physical therapy firm Hinge Health, worth $6.2 billion at its previous funding round, filed for an IPO that could raise up to $500 million in what’s expected to be an important sign for public markets’ appetite for healthtech offerings. |
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| USAID staff have been ordered by Acting Executive Secretary Erica Carr to destroy classified documents and personnel records. DOGE’s staff cuts at Veteran Affairs are delaying clinical trials and disrupting cutting-edge treatment for veterans. Deeper cuts are planned. Proposed cuts to Medicaid in the budget that passed the Republican-controlled House could shutter rural hospitals and devastate America’s teetering rural healthcare system. Former NIH director Francis Collins warned at a Stand Up For Science rally that major health research programs are “at severe risk” because of Trump’s cuts. How Walgreens went from from a $100 billion health giant toa “private-equity salvage project” in 10 years as the industry changed. Hundreds of thousands of people with tuberculosis can’t get tests or treatments because of USAID’s cuts. Meanwhile, Johns Hopkins, the nation’s top spender on science R&D, plans to lay off staff after losing $800 million in federal grants. An Australian man survived for 100 days with an artificial heart before it was replaced with a donor one. |
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