Escorting a person in a hazmat suit from a medical aircraft allegedly carrying some of the passengers from the cruise ship MV Hondius where passengers became infected with hantavirus
AFP via Getty Images
In this week’s edition of InnovationRx, we look at the latest on the hantavirus outbreak, using quantum physics for metabolic MRIs, how AI can help fill prescriptions and more. To get it in your inbox, subscribe here.
How worried should we be about the hantavirus outbreak?
The virus spread through passengers and crew of the cruise ship MV Hondius, killing three people and infecting at least eight others. Eighty-seven passengers and 35 crew members have now been evacuated to their home countries, including 18 to the U.S., most of whom are now quarantining at a medical facility in Omaha, Nebraska.
But hantavirus isn’t like Covid-19. World Health Organization Director Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus told reporters on Monday that there’s “no sign we are seeing the start of a larger outbreak,” while acknowledging that the “situation could change.”
There are complications. For one, the incubation period of the virus is very long–up to six weeks–compared with 14 days for Covid-19. Then, too, those on the ship have now spread out to 22 different countries. That makes it harder to isolate patients and track the disease. That said, by and large nations are working to do just that.
Although hantavirus infections typically come from rodents, this strain spreads between people and has a 40% mortality rate. But unlike Covid or flu, it requires close contact to spread. That’s why experts think the risk of hantavirus rising to the level of a pandemic crisis like COVID-19 is low. An earlier larger outbreak, at a 2018 birthday party in Argentina at a birthday party in Argentina involving more than 100 people caused 34 infections and 11 deaths, but isolation and quarantine stopped further spread. While we may see more cases from the current outbreak, it’s unlikely to be as bad as that.
Still, conspiracy theories and misinformation about the disease are circulating all over the internet, reports Wired. Among the claims: it can be treated with anti-parasitic drug ivermectin (it can’t) and that infections are caused by COVID vaccines (they aren’t).
For up-to-date information, follow our colleagues on the Forbes Breaking News team at this link.
This $250 Million Startup Tracks How Cancer Reacts To Treatment In Real Time
NVision founders Ilai Schwartz (left) and Sella Brosh
NVision
On a sunny Tuesday in late March at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, Kayvan Keshari pulls up images of a patient’s prostate tumor on his computer. This is no traditional MRI scan. Instead, it looks more like a weather map that shows how the tumor is changing, with areas of serious disease glowing red and ominous black.
The company behind this metabolic MRI is NVision Quantum Technologies. The 11-year-old, Ulm, Germany-based company has developed a new way to image cancer cells by taking advantage of the fact that they process sugar differently from healthy cells. Their quantum-based technology can boost the signal sugars emit by more than 10,000 times, which enables a standard MRI machine to measure how a tumor’s cells are changing in real time.
“We know that metabolism is the first thing to change when treatment is working,” says NVision cofounder and CEO Sella Brosh. “The MRI is a machine that we are leveraging. We are just adding the metabolic layer to the existing scan.”
NVision said on Wednesday that it had raised $55 million in new funding, including $38 million led by medical diagnostics giant Abbott, which has been doubling down on early cancer diagnosis. The new funding, which brings its total equity investment to $74 million, values the firm at more than $250 million.
While NVision’s business remains in its early days, since first deploying at MSK last summer, it is starting to roll out its metabolic imaging at top hospitals and bring in revenue. Brosh expects to be in 20 centers across the U.S., Europe and Asia by the end of the year, including Houston’s MD Anderson, UCSF and the University of Cambridge. And it now has even bigger ambitions in quantum computing.
Read more here.
Billions In Prescriptions Go Unfilled. This Startup Is Using AI To Fix That.
Nearly one third of Americans never fill the prescriptions that their doctors order. Sahir Jaggi thinks AI can help.
In 2023, he started Forus (then named Tandem) to develop AI software that can handle prescriptions’ administrative backend. The moment a physician writes a script, Forus’s system picks it up and processes it, figuring out nitty-gritty details like what medications a patient has tried previously and whether there are restrictions on which pharmacy can fill it. Both the doctor and the patient can see what’s going on in real time. “We reduce a huge amount of headache, paperwork and phone calls,” says Jaggi, who is 31 and an alum of the Forbes 30 Under 30 list.
The company says that thousands of medical practices and health systems across the country currently rely on its tech, with a 10-fold annual increase for the past two years, driven almost entirely by word of mouth. Medical practices that use its software have seen an increase in prescription fill rates over time, Jaggi says.
Forus said on Tuesday that it had reached a $1 billion valuation, with $160 million in total funding from investors that include Thrive Capital, General Catalyst and Accel.
Read more here.
Deal of the Week
Last October, Novo Nordisk halted development of its cell therapies and fired all the employees working in that area. This week, the company announced that it had struck a deal with AI biotech firm Cellular Intelligence for one such treatment, for Parkinson’s disease.
The companies didn’t disclose the deal’s financial terms, but said Novo Nordisk would take an equity stake in the Boston-based startup and could receive future milestone payments and royalties. Cellular Intelligence, which is valued at more than $270 million, according to analytics firm PitchBook, counts Khosla Ventures and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative among its investors.
The drug under development, which is derived from stem cells, is now in clinical trials with an FDA Fast Track Designation, which expedites the regulatory process.
WHAT WE’RE READING
The Wall Street Journal tracks Marty Makary’s last days as FDA commissioner before his resignation, and STAT’s Matt Herper argues that Makary was the worst FDA commissioner in 25 years. Before leaving, he gave one of his last interviews to Men’s Health, discussing topics like peptides and testosterone replacement therapy.
Drugmakers are losing the AI talent war as top, young AI researchers shun Big Pharma for their careers.
A new study suggests that a single infusion could suppress the H.I.V. virus for years, similar to a therapeutic approach used for some blood cancers.
Working behind the scenes, HHS Secretary Kennedy is spearheading a vast inquiry – led by Martin Kulldorff – into his anti-vaccine theories.
California is known for Hollywood and high tech, but it depends on lower-paid healthcare work to boost the labor market.
Patients who switch from Lilly’s weight-loss injections to its new pill don’t regain much weight, a new study shows.
The scientific community is debating whether AI tools should be capable of designing new toxins.