Blog and Whitepapers
Recon takes an analytical look behind select developments in healthcare
- By Marc Herant
Preempting severe genetic disease
Around 2% of births come with a genetic disease, often with devastating impact. While some appear de novo (either from germplasm dominant mutations or from chromosomal accidents), a fraction are inherited (from the mother if X-linked, from both parents if autosomal recessive) and can be predicted (before conception) by gene sequencing parents. In a fascinating stu…
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- By Marc Herant
Peanut medicine that won’t cost peanuts
Allergy to peanuts is a major issue and though prevention is now possible in infants there is a huge population for whom actual survival is connected to vigilan…
- By Tess Niewood
Interest and investment in digital health has increased rapidly in recent years. Some digital health software is impactful enough that it requires FDA approval, but current regulatory pathways are sl…
- By Marc Herant
One century after the use of convalescent serum, convalescent T-cells
The use of tailored T-cells (e.g. CAR-T) is transforming our approach to (blood) cancers, but what about using T-cells against the…
- By Marc Herant
Primary care organizations are better ACOs when it comes to achieving savings
Initial results from the Medicare Shared Savings Program ACO have been disappointing pointing to small to negligible net e…
- By Marc Herant
Transthyretin heats up
Last month saw a couple landmark papers about the use of parenteral RNA drugs (from Alnylam and Ionis) in hereditary transthyretin amyloidosis with a focus mainly on mitigating …
- By Marc Herant
RNA drugs coming of age
Hereditary Transthyretin Amyloidosis (ATTR) is a genetic disease in which one of the alleles of Transthyretin (TTR), a protein produced by the liver and with a role in thyroid …
- By Marc Herant
It’s hard to quit (and E-cigs don’t help)
A large trial (6000 participants) comparing free cessation support, e-cigarettes, and a $600 cash incentive for sustained abstinence shows that none of these …
- By Marc Herant
One more on the chin for Alzheimer’s
A report of a large phase 3 study of the highly potent oral BACE inhibitor verubecestat (Merck) with yet again a lack of therapeutic effect, despite a dramatic red…
- By Marc Herant
Are we nearing an asymptote with implantable cardiac pumps?
Severe heart failure is common, and spare hearts for transplant are rare, which has led to the development of implantable mechanical alterna…
- By Marc Herant
One way to think about disease[1] is as a loss of information[2] from the operating blueprint for human physiology. Broadly speaking, there are three main possible types of informational defects depe…