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Sunday, September 30, 2018

Employer-based health insurance offerings increase for first time in decade

After nearly a decade of declining employer-based health insurance plans, the overall percentage of private-sector employers offering health benefits in 2017 increased for the first time since 2008, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute.
In a webinar on the topic on Thursday, EBRI said the strong economy is mostly the reason for the increase, including low unemployment, fewer self-employed people, more employees moving to larger companies and more people transitioning from part-time work.
Despite improved numbers, the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) said costs associated with health benefits remain the No. 1 problem for small businesses.

Experts believed that many businesses would drop health insurance after the Affordable Care Act. The law makes it easier for people to get health insurance on their own, such as through the exchanges. With that in mind, more employers were expected to drop coverage and let employees get insurance themselves.

Also, the country was in a recession a decade ago with unemployment at about 10%. A weak labor market meant that businesses didn’t need to offer competitive health benefits to compete against other companies, said Paul Fronstin, director of health research at EBRI.

This combination was a recipe for employers, especially small businesses, to drop insurance. In the years after the ACA, more smaller companies dropped coverage. That’s changing, and the economy and shifting healthcare costs to consumers are the reasons.

EBRI found that since 2014, when the ACA exchanges went into effect, the number of private sector businesses offering health insurance has actually increased. After years of a decline, EBRI first saw the change in 2015. Mid-sized employers (100-999 employees) increased from 92.5% in 2014 to 95.1% in 2015 and eclipsed 96% over the past two years.

Another trend in 2017 is that more small businesses are offering health insurance compared to previous years. “It’s this increase that’s driving the overall number up. You have to remember most employers in the U.S. are small,” Fronstin said.

Despite more businesses offering insurance, the costs associated with health benefits remain a major problem for small businesses, Holly Wade, director of research and policy analysis at NFIB, said. Small businesses have listed the cost of health insurance as their No. 1 problem and priority since 1986, she said.

In 2016, a survey of small businesses found that 52% of respondents believed health insurance costs were the most critical problem ahead of “unreasonable” government regulations and federal taxes on business income. Only 8% of respondents said healthcare costs were not a problem.

Though slightly more than half consider health costs their No. 1 problem, health insurance costs aren’t as much of an issue for small businesses as they were 14 years ago when 66% of small businesses said it was a critical issue.

One reason for the reduced concern is that benefit design changes have created high-deductible health plans and shifted more costs onto employees. NFIB found in a 2015 survey that 36% of small companies provide higher deductibles as a way to control healthcare costs, 30% increase copays, 20% reduce benefits and 18% offer restricted networks.

All of these actions have helped cut costs for businesses. A recent Mercer’s survey found that employer-sponsored health insurance costs have increased about 3% annually since 2012. A decade ago, annual cost growth was more than double that percentage.

Despite those improved numbers, many small businesses still face annual double-digit cost increases. Mercer said about one-third of smaller employers saw health insurance cost increases of more than 10% in 2017.

A strong economy is benefiting employer-based health insurance numbers now, but employer-based coverage will be tested in the next economic downturn. When that happens, it will be the first time the country faces a recession with the ACA providing an alternative for employer-based coverage, Fronstin said.

He suggested that higher unemployment could lead businesses to drop coverage with the belief that their employees can get individual coverage through the exchanges. “That’s when our traditional employer-based system gets put to the test,” Fronstin said.

https://www.healthcaredive.com/news/employer-based-health-insurance-offerings-increase-for-first-time-in-decade/533480/

Facebook, Instagram’s Anti-Weed Stance Frustrates Cannabis Entrepreneurs

Facebook And Instagram's Anti-Weed Stance Frustrates Cannabis Entrepreneurs

Advertising is crucial in the success of any business — and this holds true for cannabis as well. When U.S. states started to legalize cannabis, dozens of new companies flocked to the largest social media platforms in the world, including Facebook Inc (NASDAQ: FB) and Instagram.

They soon hit a snag. Facebook and its subsidiary Instagram weren’t keen on letting cannabis businesses promote their products on the platforms.

Although some businesses have managed to develop strategies that allow them to use social media as a tool to reach out to customers, Facebook’s anti-marijuana position extends beyond ads.

Blocking Cannabis Searches

A search on Facebook shows no results for “cannabis” or “marijuana.” Interestingly, searches for “hash,” “hashish,” “weed” and “pot” will show marijuana-related pages. In a way, Facebook’s anti-weed position only affects the official names of the plant.

It’s an unusual approach, as blocking searches for “cannabis” and “marijuana” not only affects legally operating businesses, but also filters out government agencies that are involved in the industry, such as the California Bureau of Cannabis Control.

When contacted by Benzinga for comment on this story, a Facebook spokeswoman referred to the company’s regulated goods policy.

“In our Community Standards, which are the guidelines outlining what is and is not allowed on Facebook, our regulated goods policy explains that we prohibit attempts by individuals, manufacturers, and retailers to purchase, sell or trade non-medical drugs, pharmaceutical drugs and marijuana,” the spokeswoman said in an email.

“We also further explain that while some of these items are not regulated everywhere, because of the borderless nature of our community, we try to enforce our policies as consistently as possible,”

It’s unclear how censoring marijuana and cannabis searches affects businesses, but there is unquestionably an impact. According to a study conducted by G/O Digital in 2014, 30 percent of those surveyed said that they checked a local business’ Facebook page several times a day before deciding to take their business there.

Some businesses found a way around the verbiage.

Jamie Cooper, the CEO and founder of Cannabiz Connection, an online platform that connects cannabis entrepreneurs, said she noticed that the search for “cannabis” on Facebook is blocked.

Cooper’s company was unaffected because of the “z” in its name, she said.

Selectivity With Marijuana Ads

Facebook’s advertising policy is based on its Community Standards, but is “more stringent” and prohibits the sale or use of illegal, prescription or recreational drugs, according to the social media platform.

While cannabis remains federally illegal, Facebook’s anti-drug policy also affects businesses that service the cannabis industry but do not interact with the plant itself.

Facebook seems to be selective with cannabis-related ads.

“Every time you submit an ad, it is reviewed by one of their team members for approval, and a lot of times it’s rejected no matter what and then sometimes it isn’t,” said Cannabiz Connection’s Cooper.

“The fact that they don’t adhere to their own policy and reject ads that comply with their rules is ridiculous. I can’t even begin to tell you the amount of time I have spent arguing with Facebook. It’s all dependent on who reviews your ad and their personal stance on cannabis.”

Censorship Goes Beyond Search, Ads

In addition to blocking searches and aads related to cannabis businesses, Facebook can also shut down business pages altogether.

In 2016, Facebook deleted or suspended dozens of pages operated by marijuana businesses. It created a backlash, as most of the businesses had operated their pages for years.

Two years later, things haven’t changed much.

The policies affect not only Facebook, but Instagram as well. A number of industry participants complain that their Instagram accounts were deleted while other businesses continued to operate theirs.

“As an edible reviewer, I spent years using Instagram as a way to connect with the cannabis community. I gained a following of 14,000 people only to be deleted by Instagram in 2016. The deletion was devastating and made me rethink the way I connect with the community,” said Alice Moon, a cannabis lifestyle entrepreneur.

Instead of focusing on Instagram, I spent 2017 going to events to build in-person connections, because you can’t delete those. I want to share more on Instagram but my concern is: will I be deleted again?”

Moon saidthat while her account was deleted, others, such as dispensary operator Medmen Enterprises Inc (OTC: MMNFF)’s account, are allowed to create sponsored posts. In another example, cannabis brand Beboe’s account is verified.

The same issue was pointed out by cannabis photographer Bess Byers.

“For being such a progressive, community-oriented platform, it is disappointing to see Instagram get conservative on cannabis. We ask Instagram to please update their draconian Terms of Service to reflect changing laws.”

https://www.benzinga.com/markets/cannabis/18/09/12284669/facebook-and-instagrams-anti-weed-stance-frustrates-cannabis-entrepr

3-D bioPen: A hydrogel injection to regenerate cartilage

Highly specialized cartilage is characteristically avascular and non-neural in composition with low cell numbers in an aliphatic environment. Despite its apparent simplicity, bioengineering regenerative hyaline cartilage in a form effective for implantation remains challenging in musculoskeletal tissue engineering. Existing surgical techniques including autologous chondrocyte implantation (ACI) and matrix-induced autologous chondrocyte implantation (MACI) are considered superior to self-repair induction techniques. However, both MACI and ACI are complex, multistage procedures that require a double operation; first for surgical excision of native cartilage, followed by expansion of adult chondrocytes in vitro prior to implantation by a second operation.

Regenerating robust articular hyaline-like cartilage is a key priority in musculoskeletal tissue engineering to prevent cost-intensive degenerative osteoarthritis that limits the quality of life in global healthcare. Integrating mesenchymal stem cells and 3-D printing technologies has shown significant promise in bone tissue engineering– although the key challenge remains in transferring the bench-based technology to the operating room for real-time applications. To tackle this, a team of Australian orthopedic surgeons and bioengineers collaboratively proposed an in situ additive manufacturing technique for effective cartilage regeneration. The handheld engineered extrusion device known as the BioPen offers an advanced, co-axial extrusion strategy to deposit cells embedded in a hydrogel material within a surgical setting. The dynamics of material distribution to facilitate cell survival, and the maintenance of mechanical properties for cartilage tissue engineering of BioPen are now published in Biofabrication, IOP Science.

In the recent study, Claudia Di Bella and co-workers conducted neocartilage biofabrication as a requisite step in the path toward clinical translation of the BioPen device, preceded by an in vivo proof-of-principle pilot animal study performed in a sheep model. The authors used human adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells (hADSCs) laden in gelatin methacrylate (GelMa) and hyaluronic acid methacrylate (HAMa) hydrogels, extruded via the BioPen to generate bioscaffolds that formed hyaline-like cartilage. The authors replicated the previously established protocol to synthesize the GelMa/HAMa hydrogel. The surgical device showed capacity to biofabricate a regenerative stem cell niche in situ with future potential to change the existing clinical approaches in surgical practice for organ and tissue regeneration.

3D BioPen: a hydrogel injection to regenerate cartilage - developmental path towards clinical treatment — The bench to clinic framework of materials development for clinical translation of the BioPen device. The flow chart lists the steps achieved (green) and the steps projected (purple). The present stage is neocartilage biofabrication (red …more

Human stem cells were harvested from the infrapatellar fat pad (IPFP) of patients undergoing total knee replacement. To control the size and shape of the scaffolds extruded by the BioPen, the authors used polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) cylindrical molds to create a desired shape with regulated cell numbers, providing reproducible structural organization with 3-D geometry for mechanical testing. Immediately after extrusion, samples were irradiated with UV light for photopolymerization. Materials were characterized with mechanical loading tests for compression and atomic force microscopy (AFM) to determine surface topology.

The capacity to produce hyaline-like neocartilage was analyzed using the cellular response to the chondrogenic stimuli via histology, gene and protein expression analysis. The building of new tissue was defined by protein localization and organization of the main components of hyaline cartilage. The neocartilage function was determined via mechanical properties with time.

The study demonstrated the capacity of the BioPen to produce human hyaline-like cartilage by coaxial extrusion of hADSC-laden in GelMa/HAMa hydrogel. A handheld device for surgical extrusion can also overcome clinical graft-site mismatch limitations. The previously established core/shell distribution of the scaffold geometry protected the survival and proliferative potential of the hADSCs. Genes expressed during hyaline-like cartilage formation were quantified with qRT-PCR, the expression of SOX9 – the master regulator of chondrogenesis reflected the chondrogenic potential of the stem cellssource. Cells similarly expressed COL2A1 (type II collagen found in cartilage) and ACAN (that forms proteoglycan protein) to demonstrate differentiation. Bioscaffolds were further tested using non-linear two-photon microscopy and second-harmonic generation (SHG) to detect mature fibrillary collagen after eight weeks of chondrogenesis.

The possibility of delivering osteogenic and chondrogenic growth factors within the hydrogel will be considered in the future. Additional studies will also aim to achieve biomechanical properties for the chondrogenic bioscaffolds comparable to native articular cartilage. Studies hereon will evaluate de novo cartilage formation to understand the interplay between stem cells and 3-D architectured hydrogels with different mechanical and biodegradation properties.

Explore further: Platelet-rich plasma does not promote stem cell-mediated cartilage repair

More information: Carmine Onofrillo et al. Biofabrication of human articular cartilage: a path towards the development of a clinical treatment, Biofabrication (2018). DOI: 10.1088/1758-5090/aad8d9

Serena Duchi et al. Handheld Co-Axial Bioprinting: Application to in situ surgical cartilage repair, Scientific Reports (2017). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-05699-x

Cathal D O’Connell et al. Development of the Biopen: a handheld device for surgical printing of adipose stem cells at a chondral wound site, Biofabrication (2016). DOI: 10.1088/1758-5090/8/1/015019

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2018-09-d-biopen-hydrogel-regenerate-cartilage.html

KSQ Gains $80 Million Series C Financing for CRISPRomics Development

KSQ Therapeutics disclosed that they’ve obtained an $80 million Series C financing that will be put towards the development of oncology drug candidates via CRISPRomics™, a drug discovery engine that creates insights specific to individual human genes on an industrial scale. The company describes the engine as “our industrialized discovery engine that utilizes a suite of proprietary CRISPR/Cas9 tools to generate disease-specific insights for every human gene with improved precision and at unprecedented scale. We have evolved this engine into multiple distinct platforms to identify and genetically validate optimal novel targets for drug discovery. CRISPRomics has broad utility across multiple therapeutic areas, and the company is currently deploying this approach in the areas of oncology, immuno-oncology, autoimmune disease, and select rare diseases.” With the new funding influx, KSQ Therapeutics will advance its original drug program, focused on adoptive T-cell immunotherapy, and up to three new studied oncology drug programs.

KSQ Therapeutics has utilized CRISPRomics for the duration of the past twelve months, beginning and furthering 12 separate drug discovery programs over three oncology-based pharmaceutical categories. Adoptive T-cell therapies, immuno-oncology, and targeted therapies are currently being explored, and the company plans to eventually use CRISPRomics in immunology, rare diseases, and other therapeutic areas. Founding and existing investors are still participating in the Series C funding, including Flagship Pioneering, Polaris Partners, ARCH Venture Partners, and Alexandria Equities. New investors include Baillie Gifford, Cowen Healthcare Investments, Invus, and Lilly Asia Ventures.

David Meeker, MD, Chief Executive Officer of KSQ, remarks that “KSQ has made remarkable progress in the past 12 months taking an unbiased, whole-genome approach to target identification with the goal of changing the probabilities of drug discovery and development. This approach has rapidly generated a broad pipeline of cancer programs and positions us to create new medicines with higher success rates and better outcomes for patients. The power of our platform is evident in our first drug program, a modified adoptive T-cell immunotherapy with strong activity in PD-1 resistant solid tumors.”

KSQ Therapeutics was founded in 2015 by Tim Wang with an intent to apply groundbreaking functional genomics technology to discover new pathways in oncology and immuno-oncology. With the success of their CRISPR-enabled dataset, they’ve expanded to areas beyond oncology. Their pipeline is focused on tumor and immune-specific drug candidates, with two primary areas of development: a tumor-genome platform, and a T-cell genome platform. The former focuses on targeted cancer therapies while the latter involves immuno-oncology monotherapies.

“KSQ has made impressive progress in demonstrating the power of its pioneering CRISPRomics discovery engine. We see a compelling opportunity for KSQ’s high-confidence drug development approach to identify untapped opportunities and improve productivity in developing innovative medicines,” adds Jim Gilbert, Senior Partner at Flagship Pioneering and Chairman of the Board at KSQ.

The individuality and cutting-edge aspects of CRISPRomics come with the speed and scale. While other similarly functioning engines are working with ones, hundreds, or thousands, CRISPR is examining the function of all 20,000 human genome genes concurrently. This scale has allowed rapid and deep validation that accurately generates the Adoptive Cell Therapies (TILs), Immuno-Oncology (mAbs, small molecules), and Targeted Oncology (mAbs, small molecules) in the Product Development Pipeline.

“Our CRISPRomics engine has exceeded expectations in its performance and productivity, as it has systematically pinpointed cancer targets across two platforms – one for targeted therapies and another for immuno-oncology – and shown extraordinary scale, precision and speed in generating our pipeline of more than a dozen drug programs,” additioned Dr. Meeker. “With this financing and strong syndicate of investors, we are well positioned to take the next steps in realizing the potential of CRISPRomics to advance medicines that will have meaningful impact for patients.”

https://www.biospace.com/article/ksq-gains-80-million-series-c-financing-for-crispromics-development-/