Developing Drug Targeting B Cells in Autoimmune Disease of the Kidney IgA Nephropathy with Dr. Marshall Fordyce Vera Therapeutics
Release Date: 05/15/2024
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Lon Hecht, CEO of Care2U, has designed an innovative model of providing in-home high-acuity care as an alternative to emergency room visits or hospitalizations. The process includes sending a clinician to the home within 2-4 hours, with extensive mobile medical equipment, and physician support via telehealth. Benefits include better patient recovery outcomes, significant cost savings for patients and payers, and prevention of costly hospital readmissions. Lon explains, "My company, Care2U, and I are bringing high acuity care into the home. So think of it as kind of a...
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In-Home High-Acuity Care is Transforming Emergency Medicine with Lon Hecht Care2U
Empowered Patient Podcast
Lon Hecht, CEO of Care2U, has designed an innovative model of providing in-home high-acuity care as an alternative to emergency room visits or hospitalizations. The process includes sending a clinician to the home within 2-4 hours, with extensive mobile medical equipment, and physician support via telehealth. Benefits include better patient recovery outcomes, significant cost savings for patients and payers, and prevention of costly hospital readmissions. Lon explains, "My company, Care2U, and I are bringing high acuity care into the home. So think of it as kind of a...
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How Healthcare Organizations Use AI to Transform Patient Access and Revenue Cycle Management with Patty Hayward Talkdesk TRANSCRIPT
Empowered Patient Podcast
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How Healthcare Organizations Use AI to Transform Patient Access and Revenue Cycle Management with Patty Hayward Talkdesk
Empowered Patient Podcast
Patty Hayward, General Manager of healthcare and life sciences at Talkdesk, describes how a hybrid model of humans and AI is reshaping healthcare contact centers. Patient access and revenue cycle management are the primary, interconnected challenges for these centers, and modern large-language AI is being used to handle complex scheduling logic. Data analytics helps identify patterns in patient inquiries, predict demand peaks, and move care from reactive to proactive. The expectation is that AI agents will guide patients, becoming a normal and accepted part of healthcare. Patty explains, "I...
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Virtual Reality Therapy for Lazy Eye More Effective Than Traditional Patching with Scott Xiao Luminopia TRANSCRIPT
Empowered Patient Podcast
Scott Xiao, Co-Founder and CEO of Luminopia, is developing a novel, FDA -cleared VR-based treatment for neurovisual disorders with a primary focus on amblyopia, lazy eye, in children aged 4- 12 years old. This approach uses popular TV shows to create an engaging, effective therapy that trains the eyes to work together and is designed as a replacement for traditional eye patching. Clinical data indicate that the vision improvements from this therapy are durable and that the VR approach is well-received by children and their parents. Scott explains, "We are pioneering a new class of...
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Virtual Reality Therapy for Lazy Eye More Effective Than Traditional Patching with Scott Xiao Luminopia
Empowered Patient Podcast
Scott Xiao, Co-Founder and CEO of Luminopia, is developing a novel, FDA -cleared VR-based treatment for neurovisual disorders with a primary focus on amblyopia, lazy eye, in children aged 4- 12 years old. This approach uses popular TV shows to create an engaging, effective therapy that trains the eyes to work together and is designed as a replacement for traditional eye patching. Clinical data indicate that the vision improvements from this therapy are durable and that the VR approach is well-received by children and their parents. Scott explains, "We are pioneering a new class of...
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Empowered Patient Podcast
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Providing Transparency in Prescription Drug Pricing with Joseph Kleiman Buzz Health
Empowered Patient Podcast
Joseph Kleiman, President of Buzz Health, is working to improve price transparency and affordability of prescription drugs. He states that providing price transparency as early as possible in the prescription process is critical for prescribers, patients, and health plans to make better, more cost-effective decisions. To achieve true transparency, all parties in the ecosystem must cooperate and share data, moving beyond pricing visibility to fully integrate systems and use real-time information to improve patient adherence and lower costs. Joseph explains, "Buzz Health really focuses on...
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Advanced Precision Diagnostics Accelerate Cancer Mutation Analysis with Dr. Bill Kerr Avalon Healthcare Solutions TRANSCRIPT
Empowered Patient Podcast
Dr. Bill Kerr, Co-Founder and CEO of Avalon Healthcare Solutions, highlights the critical role of advanced precision diagnostics and how these tools are driving true precision medicine, where therapies are targeted to specific genetic mutations. There have been significant innovations, such as less invasive liquid biopsies and the application of AI to interpret medical images and complex lab results, which provide faster analysis and make it easier to monitor disease over time. The future of diagnostics includes more routine tests and imaging to enable earlier interventions and more...
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Advanced Precision Diagnostics Accelerate Cancer Mutation Analysis with Dr. Bill Kerr Avalon Healthcare Solutions
Empowered Patient Podcast
Dr. Bill Kerr, Co-Founder and CEO of Avalon Healthcare Solutions, highlights the critical role of advanced precision diagnostics and how these tools are driving true precision medicine, where therapies are targeted to specific genetic mutations. There have been significant innovations, such as less invasive liquid biopsies and the application of AI to interpret medical images and complex lab results, which provide faster analysis and make it easier to monitor disease over time. The future of diagnostics includes more routine tests and imaging to enable earlier interventions and more...
info_outlineDr. Marshall Fordyce, CEO and Founder of Vera Therapeutics, discusses the company's patient-centric approach to developing new medicines for autoimmune diseases. Vera is currently in Phase 3 with a molecule called Atacicept, which targets B cells in autoimmune diseases. They focus on IgA nephropathy, a rare kidney disease, and the third most common cause of kidney failure. A key concern is that declining kidney function is often misdiagnosed and not screened for because the early warning signs are so subtle.
Marshall explains, "Let me give you an example of our lead indication. So, our molecule in development is called atacicept. It targets the immune system in the specific area of B cells, and B cells are the factories of our antibodies, which we need to fight infection over our lifetime. But in patients with autoimmune disease, these B cells are overstimulated, they're overactive, and there are only a few medicines that target B cells with an appropriate balance of safety and efficacy. We had an insight that the science told us that by inhibiting two key factors in the body, BAFF and APRIL, we could normalize that overactivity of B cells and have better outcomes."
"Now traditional drug development may be long and expensive. We were very strategic in picking IgA nephropathy. This is an area that has had very little drug development over the last decade. A few small companies started to become interested in this area, and thankfully, because of patient advocacy, the FDA allowed a surrogate endpoint in Phase 3 trials, which made it more efficient to bring this molecule forward. So, there are now two drugs on the market for the first time in the last three or four years, for two new drugs in IgA nephropathy. They don't target B cells, which is really what's driving this disease. They work downstream, or they're nonspecific."
"What Vera did differently is that we thought that we could actually demonstrate that kidney function, which in these young patients is declining at an alarming rate, if we could demonstrate that kidney function doesn't decline, that would be meaningful. It would be a significant leap. We don't see that happen in "traditional" drug development often, in my view. So, I think what's different here is that we're picking an area where we think we can intervene and, in early-stage development, show a meaningful improvement in outcomes for patients."
#VeraTherapeutics #KidneyDisease #RareDisease #BCells #Immunotherapy #AutoimmuneDiseases #IgANephropathy
