MedPath

Clinical Trial News

Medibank Partners with Emyria to Fund Innovative PTSD Treatment Program in Australian Healthcare First

  • Medibank, Australia's largest private health insurer, has entered a multi-year partnership with Emyria to fund the Empax PTSD care program, marking the first time a major private health insurer has funded an ethics-approved, psychiatrist-led trauma therapy program.
  • Eligible Medibank members can now access the comprehensive trauma care program with no out-of-pocket costs at Perth Clinic, with treatment typically valued between AUD $20,000 and AUD $30,000.
  • The Empax model integrates psychiatrist-supervised therapy, specialist care coordination, and continuous real-world data collection, addressing the urgent need for innovative mental health treatments as PTSD affects approximately one in 11 Australians.
  • Independent evaluation by Professor Paul Fitzgerald from Australian National University will assess clinical effectiveness and health economics to build the case for broader reimbursement and systemic adoption.

OCCAM Immune and Cancer Research Institute Form Strategic Partnership to Advance Personalized Immunotherapy

  • OCCAM Immune, a Mount Sinai initiative, has partnered with the Cancer Research Institute to establish long-term immune monitoring across clinical trials, aiming to identify which patients benefit most from specific immunotherapies.
  • The collaboration will begin with a clinical trial in platinum-resistant high-grade serous ovarian cancer, analyzing 160 blood samples and tumor biopsies using RNA/DNA sequencing and immune cell mapping technologies.
  • This partnership combines CRI's decades of immunotherapy experience and global clinical trial access with OCCAM Immune's advanced immune profiling tools to accelerate personalized cancer treatment development.
  • The initiative addresses the critical challenge that immunotherapy doesn't work for all patients, seeking to understand immune system responses to therapy for more precise treatment matching.

Sartorius Stedim Biotech Completes Major Manufacturing Expansion in France to Meet Growing Bioprocessing Demand

  • Sartorius Stedim Biotech has completed a multi-year capacity expansion project at its Aubagne headquarters, nearly doubling cleanroom space to 9,000 square meters with automated production lines for single-use bioprocessing bags.
  • The expansion includes a new 12,000-square-meter automated warehouse facility and 1,900-square-meter cross-functional lab space for product development and customer training, with total site area quadrupling to 90,000 square meters since 2020.
  • The company has invested significantly in sustainable manufacturing practices, achieving ISCC Plus certification for renewable raw materials and ISO 14001 environmental management standards while doubling its French workforce to 1,400 employees over the past decade.

Castle Biosciences and SciBase Partner to Develop AI-Powered Atopic Dermatitis Flare Prediction Test

AI
  • Castle Biosciences and SciBase have signed a collaboration agreement to develop a diagnostic test that predicts flares in atopic dermatitis patients using SciBase's AI-powered Electrical Impedance Spectroscopy technology.
  • The partnership targets up to 24 million atopic dermatitis patients in the United States who experience flares despite maintenance treatment, aiming to enable pre-symptomatic intervention.
  • Castle Biosciences will invest approximately $19 million in SciBase shares and receive North American territory rights, while SciBase retains EU and other international markets.
  • The collaboration leverages Castle's existing dermatology portfolio and commercial infrastructure to expand diagnostic solutions for skin barrier dysfunction affecting over 500 million people globally.

Medtech Products Recalls Little Remedies Honey Cough Syrup Nationwide Due to Bacterial Contamination

  • Medtech Products Inc. voluntarily recalled five lots of Little Remedies Honey Cough Syrup due to contamination with Bacillus cereus bacteria and loss of shelf-stability.
  • The recalled 4 FL OZ bottles were distributed nationwide from December 2022 through June 2025, with no serious adverse events reported to date.
  • Bacillus cereus can cause foodborne illness symptoms including nausea, vomiting, stomach cramps, and diarrhea, with potential for death at high exposure levels.
  • Consumers should stop using recalled products immediately and contact healthcare providers if they experience related symptoms.

City of Hope Receives $23.7 Million ARPA-H Grant to Map Immunotherapy Resistance in Lung Cancer

Precision Medicine
  • City of Hope has been awarded up to $23.7 million by ARPA-H to create a biomap of tumor changes causing immunotherapy resistance in advanced non-small cell lung cancer.
  • The six-year clinical trial will enroll 535 patients and use real-time monitoring techniques including liquid biopsies and single-cell sequencing to track tumor evolution.
  • Researchers aim to improve progression-free survival by 50% in at least one patient group by adapting treatments as resistance develops.
  • The project addresses the limited reliability of current biomarkers, with existing immunotherapy response rates below 40% in NSCLC patients.

Incannex Healthcare Forms Joint Venture with Mind Medicine Australia to Launch Psychedelic Therapy Clinic in Melbourne

  • Incannex Healthcare has entered a 50:50 joint venture with Mind Medicine Australia to launch a psychedelic-assisted therapies clinic in Melbourne, targeting PTSD and treatment-resistant depression.
  • The new entity, Mind Medicine Australia Clinics, will provide integrated services including clinical operations, governance, medicine supply, and clinician training to expand treatment access.
  • The updated clinic model is expected to reduce costs and more than triple service capacity, with patient intake beginning shortly in response to strong early demand.
  • Mind Medicine Australia successfully led the world's first regulatory rescheduling of psilocybin and MDMA for controlled clinical use in Australia in 2023.

NMDP ACCESS Trial Shows Mismatched Donors Expand Stem Cell Transplant Access for Blood Cancer Patients

  • The ACCESS Phase II trial demonstrated that mismatched unrelated donors can safely provide stem cell transplants with one-year overall survival rates of 83.8% for myeloablative and 78.6% for reduced-intensity conditioning.
  • Results showed no significant difference in overall survival between patients with 7/8 HLA-matched donors and those with fewer matches, expanding donor eligibility for blood cancer patients.
  • The study enrolled 145 adult patients across 21 U.S. transplant centers, with 59% from underrepresented racial or ethnic groups, addressing historical disparities in donor availability.
  • Low rates of severe graft-versus-host disease were observed, with grade III-IV acute GVHD occurring in only 8-10% of patients at six months.

Lung Cancer Research Foundation and Boehringer Ingelheim Launch $2.25 Million Initiative to Target HER2-Mutant Lung Cancer

Targeted Therapy
  • The Lung Cancer Research Foundation and Boehringer Ingelheim announced a $2.25 million research collaboration to advance understanding and treatment of HER2-mutant lung cancer through two new funding mechanisms.
  • The initiative includes a $1.5 million Team Science Award and $750,000 in Early Career Investigator Awards, addressing the critical need for novel therapeutic approaches in HER2-driven lung cancers.
  • HER2 mutations occur in up to 4% of non-small cell lung cancer cases, with current treatments not being curative and resistance invariably developing despite recent FDA approval of trastuzumab deruxtecan.
  • The collaboration aims to accelerate scientific discovery by supporting team-based research approaches and early career investigators, with proposal submissions due by July 29, 2025.

Tislelizumab Shows Promise as Adjuvant Therapy for High-Risk Hepatocellular Carcinoma Patients

Monoclonal Antibody
  • A multicenter retrospective study of 108 patients demonstrated that tislelizumab, with or without tyrosine kinase inhibitors, significantly extended recurrence-free survival in high-risk hepatocellular carcinoma patients after curative resection.
  • Patients receiving adjuvant therapy for at least 6 months showed significantly longer recurrence-free survival compared to those treated for less than 6 months, with RFS rates of 89.8%, 71.3%, and 59.3% at 6, 12, and 24 months respectively.
  • Combination therapy with TKIs did not provide additional survival benefit over tislelizumab monotherapy but resulted in significantly higher rates of grade 3 or higher treatment-related adverse events (38.5% vs 18.6%).
  • The findings suggest tislelizumab monotherapy may be the optimal adjuvant approach for preventing HCC recurrence, balancing efficacy with acceptable toxicity profiles.

Adjuvant Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors in Postoperative Hepatocellular Carcinoma

NCT05221398Completed
Guangxi Medical University
Posted 3/3/2019

MedPath

Empowering clinical research with data-driven insights and AI-powered tools.

© 2025 MedPath, Inc. All rights reserved.