From WisPolitics.com/WisBusiness.com …
— NorthStar Medical Technologies has landed $185 million in growth capital financing, funding efforts to scale up isotope production and drug manufacturing.
The Beloit-based radiopharmaceutical business yesterday announced the deal with Hercules Capital in California, which includes $100 in upfront funding. Lake McGuire, the venture capital firm’s managing director, touted NorthStar’s ability to produce “a critical isotope at scale at an important time” for the industry.
Earlier this year, the company announced it was the first commercial-scale producer of no-carrier-added actinium-225 — a key material for certain cancer therapies — using electron accelerator technology.
“We are pleased to provide capital to help NorthStar expand its production and meet growing demand, while supporting its role as a partner to companies advancing these therapies,” McGuire said in a statement.
The investment follows the FDA in April accepting the company’s drug master file for n.c.a. Ac-225, a regulatory hurdle the company said was critical for its use in clinical cancer treatment. NorthStar aims to transition to a “high-capacity” production line for the material at its facilities in Beloit later this year.
NorthStar President and CEO Frank Scholz says the new funding “provides the necessary capital to expand our capacity, accelerate our growth, and support our partners” in developing medical treatments.
See the release below.
— State health officials today issued vaccine recommendations for flu, COVID-19 and RSV amid a “void” in federal leadership on this issue, basing their guidelines instead on the work of professional societies.
That’s according to Dr. Ryan Westergaard, chief medical officer for the state Department of Health Services. Speaking today during a call with reporters, he stressed the safety of available vaccines and urged members of the public to make vaccination a part of their fall season plans.
Still, he noted this appeal comes as the federal government has shifted its approach for recommending vaccines. The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, has been “not functioning as normal” or meeting regularly amid widespread turnover in the committee and cuts to its research staff, according to Westergaard.
Absent guidance from the CDC, professional societies including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Family Physicians and the Infectious Disease Society of America convened subject matter experts to review scientific evidence on available vaccines for this year.
The groups then offered guidance for the vaccines being recommended by DHS today ahead of the respiratory virus season.
“The guidance that we here in Wisconsin have released is the result and reflects that process,” Westergaard said, adding, “the work was still done, it was done by volunteer scientists, clinicians, experts in the field … so that process was different, but here from our perspective, we’re hoping that for the general public, for patients in clinics and people going to pharmacies, the outcome is the same.”
See the release below.
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