Theranos, Karyopharm Therapeutics, Organovo. These companies are at the forefront of leading-edge technology and new products in the healthcare industry. And the new advances in technology and manufacturing have made many of their products not only possible, but also viable and available.
Lab data is usually the first and earliest way to figure out what is causing a disease and what clinical approach can be taken. Theranos has developed a new procedure to change the way in which diagnosis and therapy takes place.
The company has a unique method to do multiple blood tests with minute amounts of blood — one one-hundredth to one one-thousandth of what was needed up until now. And using this procedure, Theranos makes these kinds of lab tests accessible, less costly, quicker and virtually pain-free.
In order to foster this accessibility, Theranos has started putting what they call "wellness centers" in Walgreens retail pharmacies. Their mission is to make this kind of healthcare available within 5 miles of everyone who needs it. With 8,200 Walgreens around the country, it appears that this target can be realized in the next five years, as they have planned.
Karyopharm Therapeutics Inc. is a clinical-stage pharmaceutical company focused on discovery and development of novel drugs to treat cancer and other major diseases. Their newest drug, Selinexor (KPT-330), which comes in both an oral and topical form, is a first-in-class SINE (Selective Inhibitor of Nuclear Export) XPO1 antagonist.
The drug is currently being evaluated in several diverse trials: two trials for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma subtypes, a third trial in elderly patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), and four Phase 2 clinical trials in solid tumors — one study in gynecological malignancies, one to treat glioblastomas, one in prostate cancer, and one in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.
Organovo has one of the most futuristic approaches to medicine. This company designs and creates functional human tissues using their proprietary 3-D bioprinting technology. It is exciting to see how this technology can contribute to the future of drug testing related to organs, organ testing and organ donation.
Using bioprinting, Organovo's goal is to create reproducible 3-D tissues and organs that accurately represent their human counterparts. The current and potential use for this technology is staggering. It can give biopharmaceutical companies and academic medical centers a way to better test tissues, in vitro, for diseases and drug toxicity.
Researchers have the opportunity to test drugs on functional human tissues before having to administer the drug in a human clinical trial. And most fascinating, is the company's ability to create functional 3-D tissues that can be implanted or delivered into the human body to repair or replace damaged or diseased tissues.
At the end of 2014, Organovo's exVive3D Human Liver Tissue was made widely available in full commercial release, and has been recognized as groundbreaking in the field of tissue research innovation.
