San Diego, California, October 29, 2013 — ViaCyte, Inc., a leading regenerative medicine company focused on developing new approaches to treat major diseases through the application of a stem cell-derived cell therapy, announced today that the Company was granted over 20 patents worldwide in 2013 thus far, three U.S. and twenty foreign. These patents enhance the Company’s already strong proprietary position for its VC-01™ combination product as well as other applications of its broad technology platform.

The VC-01™ product is a stem cell derived, cell therapy that the company believes could transform the way patients with Type 1 diabetes manage their disease.  The product combines pancreatic progenitor cells called PEC-01, produced by a directed differentiation process, encapsulated with a semi-permeable device called the Encaptra® Drug Delivery System, both are proprietary technologies. The VC-01 product is designed to be inserted under the skin followed by vascularization and maturation of the PEC cells to islet-like structures that provide insulin and other regulatory factors in response to blood glucose levels. If the product performs as expected it will provide patients with a replacement for the pancreatic endocrine cells lost as a result of the disease.

With the patents granted this year, ViaCyte’s patent portfolio includes over 80 issued patents and 230 pending applications that encompass innovations from the Company’s internal research and development efforts.  The portfolio includes U.S. and foreign patents and applications directed to culture, expansion and scale-up of pluripotent stem cells and cell types derived therefrom, various differentiation processes for production of mesendoderm, definitive endoderm, PEC-01, and endocrine precursors, as well as claims directed to  the Company’s Encaptra® macro-encapsulation device platform.  The patents include composition of matter, method of use, and process claims.

Read more: http://viacyte.com/press-releases/viacyte-granted-over-20-patents-in-2013-further-establishing-the-company-as-a-leader-in-the-field-of-regenerative-medicine/

MENLO PARK, CA – October 21, 2013 – AtheroMed, a developer of innovative catheter technologies for treating peripheral artery disease (PAD), announced results from its Endovascular Atherectomy Safety and Effectiveness (EASE) study during a Late Breaking Clinical Trials Session at the Vascular Interventional Advances (VIVA) 2013 conference in Las Vegas. Stephen Williams, MD, Director of the Vascular Medicine Center at Johns Hopkins University, presented the results of the study, which demonstrate the safety and effectiveness of the Phoenix Atherectomy System in treating PAD.

EASE is a prospective, multi-center, single-arm study of 105 patients (123 lesions) in the United States and Germany that evaluated the Phoenix Atherectomy System in the treatment of lesions in the lower extremity arteries. The Phoenix System is a novel atherectomy device that uses a front-cutting, low profile design to continuously cut, capture, and clear atheroma from the patient without requiring specialized capital equipment. Co-Principal Investigators of the study are Dr. Thomas Davis, St. John Hospital (Detroit, MI), and Dr. James McKinsey, Columbia Presbyterian Hospital (New York, NY).

The results presented by Dr. Williams highlight that the Phoenix System achieved its pre-defined performance goals to demonstrate safety and effectiveness. 95.1% of the lesions treated achieved technical success, and, at 30 days, 94.3% of patients were free from Major Adverse Events. Flow-limiting dissections (Grade C or D) were observed in 1.9% of lesions with bail-out stenting required in 0.95% of lesions. Intervention due to distal embolization was limited to 0.95% of lesions.

Read more: http://www.atheromedinc.com/atheromed-announces-results-of-the-ease-study-evaluating-the-phoenix-atherectomy-system-in-treating-peripheral-artery-disease/

REDWOOD CITY, Calif., Oct. 9, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- OncoMed Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq:OMED), a clinical-stage company developing novel therapeutics that target cancer stem cells (CSCs), or tumor-initiating cells, today announced that the United States Patent and Trademark Office has granted OncoMed its first U.S. patent on its MAbTrap™ antibody display technology, one of the company's novel antibody platform technologies. OncoMed's MAbTrap™ technology enables the rapid identification of monoclonal antibodies that bind a particular target or set of targets, and bind such target or targets with high affinity and specificity. OncoMed has used the patented technology to identify and/or optimize novel antibodies, including proprietary bispecific antibodies, and demonstrated the activity of these antibodies in preclinical studies.

The new patent, U.S. Patent No. 8,551,715, relates to methods of producing libraries of cells that express membrane-bound antibodies or other specific binding agents on their surface, and methods of identifying the cells in such libraries that express an antibody or other agent having the desired binding characteristics. The patented methods include novel mammalian cell display methods. Related patent applications are currently pending in the U.S., Europe, Japan, China, and a number of other countries worldwide. The new patent and related applications are all solely owned by OncoMed.

Read more: http://investor.shareholder.com/oncomed/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=795899

FORTUNE -- A few weeks ago I wrote a column for the magazine about how most health apps don't work very well, aren't reaching those most in need, and -- besides -- counter to all claims that technology will save health care, several proven solutions involve real people, interacting with other real people, in real life. My goal was to call B.S. on what I find to be an all-too-pervasive Valley-ism: that smartphone software that tracks steps or helps photograph food or replaces your doctors visit will revolutionize medicine and change the world. No. For the most part, health apps are selling to the least needy but most willing buyers: rich people who care about being healthy. My colleague Dan Primack, who is out in the Bay Area this week, calls it "a particularly insular narcissism" in Silicon Valley, which seems exactly right.

But to every rule there is an exception, and glad I was to be called out (and called up) by the founder and CEO of one mobile-health company whose entire premise is based on scientific research with repeatable results -- the exact study, in fact, I had used as my example of what works better than a health app. Omada Health's first product, called Prevent, is essentially an online version of the Diabetes Prevention Program, which grew out of an NIH study proving the most effective means of staving off diabetes is rigorous lifestyle intervention, overseen by health coaches.

Read more: http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2013/10/03/a-health-app-based-on-real-research/

MENLO PARK, CA – October 2, 2013 – AtheroMed, a developer of innovative technologies for treating peripheral artery disease (PAD), announced that it has completed patient enrollment in the EASE clinical study. The EASE study results will be presented by Dr. Stephen Williams, Director, Vascular Medicine Center at Johns Hopkins University, during a Late Breaking Clinical Trials Session on Wednesday, October 9th, at the Vascular Interventional Advances (VIVA) conference in Las Vegas.

The EASE study was a prospective, multi-center, single-arm study to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of the Phoenix Atherectomy System for the treatment of de-novo and restenotic lesions of lower extremity arteries. The study was conducted under an IDE to support US FDA clearance and enrolled 105 patients at 16 sites in the US and Germany. Outcome assessments were made after the baseline procedure and at 30-day and 6-month follow-up visits. Co-Principal Investigators of the study were Dr. Thomas Davis, St. John Hospital (Detroit, MI), and Dr. James McKinsey, Columbia Presbyterian Hospital (New York, NY).

“Peripheral arterial disease, especially blockages located below the knee, continues to present challenges, even with currently available technologies,” said Dr. Davis. “Based on my case results in the EASE study, the Phoenix Atherectomy System appears promising as a front-line therapy for treating PAD.”

Read more: http://www.atheromedinc.com/atheromed-announces-completion-of-patient-enrollment-in-the-ease-study-evaluating-the-phoenix-atherectomy-system-in-treating-pad/