Health officials prepare for West Nile virus

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Across the United States, health officials are warning of its seasonal return West Nile viruswhich causes a potentially fatal disease which has no cures or vaccines. These warnings come earlier this year, as well changing climate conditions they make environments across the country more hospitable to disease-carrying mosquitoes.

According to the CDC, between 1,000 and 10,000 people are infected each year in the United States. And while about 80% of people who are infected show no symptoms, the 20% who do tend to develop severe symptoms. West Nile disease includes fever, along with headaches, pain, nausea, rashes, vomiting and more. The fatigue caused by the infection can last weeks or months, and a small percentage will develop effects on their central nervous system, which increases the risk of death.

There is no vaccine on the immediate horizon for West Nile disease, and while a variety of drugs have been tested against it, none have shown real efficacy. Which means that right now the best way to avoid disease is to avoid mosquito bites.

Read more about the disease here.

Billionaire Groupon founder Eric Lefkofsky’s health tech company goes public—his fourth IPO

Five years ago, Chicago-based billionaire and serial entrepreneur Eric Lefkowski told Forbes he hoped health analytics and precision medicine company Tempus AI would be his “legacy.” It is currently his most valuable asset and his fourth company to go public.

Lefkofsky founded Tempus in 2015 after his wife was diagnosed with breast cancer and he was “just baffled by how little data permeated her care.” Tempus began as a company focused on oncology—analyzing, for example, tumor samples from cancer patients and analyzing them with models trained in machine learning to help determine a more accurate diagnosis and personalized treatment—and gradually expanded to other disease areas: neuropsychiatry, radiology and cardiology.

The company, which began trading on Nasdaq on Friday, now has 2,300 employees and its customers include more than 2,000 healthcare providers who send their patient samples for testing and 19 of the world’s 20 largest pharmaceutical companies, which license the vast Tempus troves of data for use in drug discovery.

Read more here.

Pipeline & Deal Updates

Vaccine: The FDA has approved Merck’s vaccine Capvaxive, which is used to protect against the bacteria that cause pneumonia, bacteremia and meningitis.

Starting a company: Marea Therapeutics, a biotech company developing treatments for cardiometabolic diseases, announced today its combined A and B rounds totaling $190 million.

AI Drug Discovery: Enveda Biosciences, which uses a machine learning platform to identify promising drugs in nature, announced that it has raised 55 million dollars funding round.

Leukemia: Takeda announced that it has signed option agreement with Ascentage Pharma for an exclusive license to its drug candidate olverembatinib, which targets the treatment of chronic myelogenous leukemia and other blood cancers. Ascentage will receive an upfront payment of $100 million and other payments and royalties will be due if Takeda exercises the option.

MIT Spinout The Engine Ventures Raises $398M in New Fund to Tackle Tech’s Toughest Problems

Engine Ventures raised its third fund, which closed at a total of $398 million – almost double that of its second fund. The venture capital firm, which was spun out of MIT, invests in a variety of advanced technology areas – including human health. One of its portfolio companies, Vaxess, for example, is working on patches that deliver vaccines and biologics in a way that reduces the need for cold chains and syringes. This makes these treatments more accessible in parts of the world that do not have a large healthcare infrastructure.

Read more here.

Other health news

The arrests of two executives of telehealth drug company Done may have the unintended consequence of exacerbating a nearly two-year shortage of ADHD drugs and disrupting care for more than 50,000 patients across the country.

The Department of Defense secretly operated one anti-vaccine campaign targeting Chinese vaccination efforts in the Philippines during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a bombshell Research by Reuters published Friday morning.

Abortion medicine mifepristone the government’s approvals will not be revoked, as the Supreme Court unanimously ruled in favor of the government on Thursday in a case that sought to further restrict medication abortions.

Amazon Pharmacy RxPasswhich offers “unlimited access to 60 eligible prescription drugs for just $5 a month, plus fast, free delivery,” is now available to Prime members who have Medicare coverage.

Many states are expanding field of practice of pharmacists to allow them to prescribe drugs as they face a shortage of primary care doctors and other health workers.

All over Forbes

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What else are we reading?

I’m a hypochondriac. Here’s How The Health Care System Should Treat People Like Me (Stat)

When therapists lose their licenses, some turn instead to the unregulated life-coaching industry (ProPublica)

Ascension Catholic Hospitals Outsources Staffing to Private Equity Partners (Religion News)