From WisPolitics.com/WisBusiness.com …
— The Wisconsin Supreme Court unanimously rejected UW Health nurses’ plea for union recognition in a decision released today.
Writing the majority opinion, Justice Brian Hagedorn said the court found Act 10 stripped any collective bargaining rights UW nurses had under the Peace Act.
“When we examine the statutory language along with the statutory history, we conclude that Act 10 ended the collective bargaining requirements formerly placed on the Authority,” Hagedorn wrote.
Attorneys representing Service Employees International Union, which had previously represented UW nurses, argued in February that the court shouldn’t consider statutory history when the Peace Act was clear enough in giving UW Health employees the right to collective bargaining.
The state Supreme Court rejected this notion in its decision today.
Hagedorn said this argument was “simply mistaken and inconsistent with decades of statutory interpretation cases from this court.”
In a statement today, UW Nurses United said this decision does not deter their fight for representation.
“Our fight to restore collective bargaining rights doesn’t end in the courtroom,” UW Nurses United said in a statement. “We will continue to explore all possible pathways to restoring our full collective bargaining rights, including seeking voluntary recognition and passing legislation, to ensure that all of us, no matter who we are or where we work, have a seat at the table and a voice in our workplace.”
UW Nurses United had been represented by SEIU until Act 10, but asked again to be recognized by the UW Authority in 2019. The Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission ruled in 2022 the Peace Act no longer covered UW Health employees, and this decision was upheld by the Dane County Circuit Court last March.
UW Health celebrated the decision in a statement today.
“Today, the Wisconsin Supreme Court upheld the decisions of WERC and the Dane County Circuit Court, ruling that the Wisconsin Peace Act does not apply to UW Health,” UW Health said. “UW Health appreciates the court’s deliberate, diligent and final review.”
Justices Rebecca Dallet and Rebecca Bradley wrote concurring opinions.
— This week’s episode of “WisBusiness: the Podcast” is with Ashwin Karthikeyan, founder of Phoenix-Aid.
Karthikeyan, who won this year’s Wisconsin Governor’s Business Plan Contest, discusses his company’s advanced wound care dressing product. He describes it as a “better Band-Aid” for diabetic ulcers.
“These chronic wounds, they last a long time, they’re easily infected, they have a rather complex healing process,” he said. “Someone with a chronic wound generally has some sort of immune condition such as diabetes, or they’re in an older population set.”
The business is targeting underserved markets where patients only have access to standard gauzes, ointments and wraps, such as Native American reservations, rural areas or other countries such as India. The Phoenix-Aid alternative is meant to replace these treatments.
“It’s able to accelerate the healing of those wounds, protect those wounds from infections,” he said. “It lasts a longer time, it costs less and it’s something that the patient in most cases can change themselves, so it’s easier to use and sort of easier to teach.”
The company is currently conducting an animal study in Madison that’s testing the product in diabetic mice and rats to ensure it’s safe to use. Phoenix-Aid has also gotten approval to begin clinical trials in India, planned to start around November and run through spring or early summer.
“One of the biggest reasons we’re in India is it’s very cost effective and timely to get this clinical data, but we can use that data, the majority at least … to speed up the process of entrance into the American market, which we’re hoping to plan for around 2027 if we can manage it,” Karthikeyan said.
While the wound dressing was designed for diabetic ulcers, he noted it could eventually be applied for healing burns, bed sores and military trauma wounds.
The initial plan is to sell the product to pharmacies, clinics and hospitals, and ultimately go through distributors to reach these various health care providers. Karthikeyan said it could eventually be sold directly to patients as well.
“If you can apply a Band-Aid, generally you can apply this,” he said.
Listen to the podcast and see the full list of WisBusiness.com podcasts.
— SHINE Technologies has a “definite plan” for doubling production of its nuclear medicine product Ilumira in Janesville as it scales to meet customer demand.
That’s according to CEO and founder Greg Piefer, who recently discussed the company’s path forward about a year after first launching Ilumira for targeted cancer treatment. SHINE currently has capacity to produce 100,000 doses per year, and Piefer said that could be boosted to 200,000 doses per year over time.
“We’ve laid all the plans to be able to go, you know, to probably a couple hundred thousand doses per year within the facilities we have, and within the equipment we’ve already purchased,” he said in an interview this week, adding “we have massive ability to scale, even just out of Janesville.”
He noted the company’s production process typically seems to take just 10% the footprint to reach comparable yield as its competitors, and the Janesville site has plenty more room for expansion.
“Building another facility to double that again or triple that again is fairly straightforward and not particularly expensive,” he said.
Ilumira has now been shipped to 19 different countries across four continents, and Piefer says he expects that number to “continue to grow rapidly” as SHINE’s sales team works to reach new markets and get the treatment to more cancer patients. He noted the number of patients being treated with Ilumira within those 19 countries will keep rising as well.
SHINE recently submitted a marketing authorization application to the European Medicines Agency for Ilumira in the European Union. Piefer says it’s needed to get into the “mainstream” in Europe, similar to an FDA review in the United States.
The EU review process focuses on manufacturing techniques as well as marketing approaches, and Piefer says it’s well underway. He anticipates that will be completed later this year or early next year, which will “allow us to grow a lot more rapidly” in Europe.
Meanwhile, the company is also about 18 to 24 months away from finishing its Chrysalis production facility, Piefer noted, calling it a “long-awaited” project that will help to bolster U.S. supply chains for nuclear medicine.
“There continue to be shortages of medical radioisotopes, so it’s not just about superior economics down the road and cleaner technology and safer technology, but the current production infrastructure is regularly shorting patients the medicine they need,” he said.
See more here and see the release.
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