Argos Therapeutics Announces Additional $17.5 Million Of Series E Financing

Argos Therapeutics Announces Additional $17.5 Million Of Series E Financing. ·      Total Commitment $60 Million. ·      Argos is developing fully personalized immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer and infectious diseases Full press release follows. SOURCE: Argos Therapeutics DURHAM, N.C., Nov. 20, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Argos Therapeutics Inc., a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of fully personalized immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer and infectious diseases using its Arcelis™ technology platform, today announced that on November 4, 2013, the Company increased the size of its previously announced Series E financing by $17.5 million, bringing the total amount of committed funds from $42.5 million to $60 million. In August 2013, Argos announced the closing of a $42.5 million Series E financing.  The additional $17.5 million investment represents additional commitments from current Argos investors and one new investor. The funds from the Series E financing will be used to support the Company's ongoing ADAPT pivotal Phase 3 clinical trial of AGS-003 for the treatment of metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC).  "This funding further strengthens our ability to advance our ADAPT clinical trial.  In addition, the company is now better positioned to consider and pursue a range of options to support our global manufacturing and commercialization plans based on the potential of our Arcelis™ technology platform," said Jeff Abbey, Argos' president and chief executive officer. About the Arcelis™ Technology Platform Arcelis is a fully personalized immunotherapy technology that captures mutated and variant antigens that are specific to each patient's disease. It is designed to overcome immunosuppression by producing a durable memory T cell response without adjuvants that may be associated with toxicity. The technology is potentially applicable to a wide range of different cancers and infectious diseases and is designed to overcome many of the manufacturing and commercialization challenges that have impeded other personalized immunotherapies. The Arcelis process uses only a small tumor or blood sample and the patient's own dendritic cells, which are collected and optimized following a single leukapheresis procedure. The proprietary process uses RNA isolated from the patient's disease sample to program dendritic cells to target disease antigens. The activated, antigen-loaded dendritic cells are then formulated into the patient's plasma and administered via intradermal injection. About Argos Therapeutics Argos Therapeutics is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of fully personalized immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer and infectious diseases using its Arcelis™ technology platform.  Argos' most advanced product candidate, AGS-003, has initiated a pivotal Phase 3 study for the treatment of mRCC, and the Company recently completed enrollment of its Phase 2b study of AGS-004 for the treatment of HIV. For more information about Argos Therapeutics, visit www.argostherapeutics.com. SOURCE Argos Therapeutics Inc. CONTACT: Andrea Coan, Berry & Company Public Relations, acoan@berrypr.com, (212) 253-8881 Web Site: http://www.argostherapeutics.com

Health Tech Funding News, Acupera secures $6 million in funding

Acupera secures a total of $6 Million in funding, to expand development of its patient care management platform. Acupera's care management platform mines existing electronic medical records to elevate the most important data relevant to improving overall population health. Full press release appears below. SOURCE: Acupera SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 14, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Acupera today announced it secured $2 million in bridge financing from The Whittemore Collection, Ltd. to fund the development of its Population Health and Care Coordination Workflow Management technology. Acupera's solution is designed to maximize patient care effectiveness and efficiency within healthcare organizations. The $2 million is in addition to $4 million previously secured in Series A funding from The Whittemore Collection, Ltd. and Liebkind, LLC, which supported the initial development of Acupera's patient care management platform. Acupera is a privately held technology company, launched in 2011.  "Acupera enables real-time, cloud-based patient risk stratification, and clinical and behavioral workflow management that enables health care organizations to meet the diverse medical and psycho-social needs of their patient communities," said Dr. Ronald Razmi, CEO of Acupera. "Our technology is designed to easily integrate within existing provider workflows, identify patient-critical needs and rally just the right resources to ensure patient care needs are anticipated and met." Acupera's care management platform effectively mines existing electronic medical records to elevate the most important data relevant to improving overall population health. With its patient- and user-friendly interface, Acupera is uniquely suited to not only meet the evolving needs of care management teams, but also to engage local patient populations in self-care. "Acupera is the next step in the digital health revolution and begins to make clinical data actionable," said George Landegger, managing director of The Whittemore Collection, Ltd. "Acupera is the only solution available today that is suited to address the evolving requirements of growing healthcare organizations," said Hermann Buerger, managing member of Liebkind, LLC.   SOURCE Acupera CONTACT: Claire Baki/ Anne Lundregan, Schwartz MSL, +1.415.512.0770, acupera@schwartzmsl.com Web Site: http://www.acupera.com

Frustrated With Digital Experiences Correlates to Negative Brand Perception

Digital-PR Drag: People Are Increasingly Frustrated With Digital Experiences, and Walk Away With Negative Brand Perception, New EffectiveUI Study Finds.

Full article appears below.

Source: www.bulldog.com

November 13, 2013 -- Only 15 percent of people think technology—including mobile devices, smartphones and tablets—has made their life more complicated, according to a study conducted by Harris Interactive among more than 2,000 U.S. adults in October and commissioned by EffectiveUI. But while technology and quick access to information is making life easier, people also say that the digital experience is becoming more frustrating.

• ·      93 percent of people have found themselves frustrated with the usability of a website, and, on average, are frustrated with websites 23 percent of the time.

• ·      72 percent of mobile device owners have found themselves frustrated with the usability of a mobile app, on average 25 percent of the time.

This frustration has huge implications on a brand, as 87 percent of people say that a frustrating digital experience leads to at least a somewhat negative perception about that brand.

People say they want digital experiences to be easier. On average, people would do more of the following activities if they were easier:

• Banking—Respondents said they would do nine percent more banking. Industry statistics point to growth specifically in the mobile market, with the percent of mobile banking users compared to PC banking users expected to more than double by 2017, according to a July 6, 2012 blog post by Susan Huynh of Forrester Research entitled: "The Data Digest: Mobile Banking's Massive Growth Is Supplementary To PC Banking."
• Insurance—People say they would handle 13 percent more insurance needs. According to IBISWorld, the majority of insurance policies are initiated online, but most are still completed using an agent. With the industry as a whole estimated at $429 billion in the U.S., making it easier for consumers to conduct this business online could result in huge cost savings for providers.
• Shopping—Respondents would do 12 percent more shopping online or via mobile. In a $225 billion market, as reported by Internet Retailer, this equates to a $27 billion opportunity for online retailers.
• Reading—People say they would do seven percent more digital reading. BookStats reports that the eBook market was $1.54 billion in 2012, equating to a $108 million opportunity.
• Television viewing—People would view nine percent more shows digitally. With IBISWorld estimating the market at $3 billion, this equates to an additional $270 million in revenue.

"The trouble with the current situation is that we, as digital professionals, consider ourselves to be tech savvy, but the people we are designing for don't see themselves that way," said Anthony Franco, president and co-founder of EffectiveUI, in a news release. "We have to start building experiences for the people we are meant to serve—to help solve problems not as engineers, but as empathetic human beings."

This survey was conducted online within the United States by Harris Interactive on behalf of EffectiveUI from October 28-30, 2013 among 2,016 adults ages 18 and older. This online survey is not based on a probability sample and therefore no estimate of theoretical sampling error can be calculated.

Clinical Trial News: UbiVac opens trial of next generation lung cancer vaccine

UbiVac, a clinical stage cancer immunotherapy company based in Portland, OR, announced the results of a Phase I clinical trial and the initiation of a Phase II clinical trial of its first-in-class autophagosome DRibble vaccine, DPV-001, in two presentations at the 15th World Conference for Lung Cancer, in Sydney. This novel vaccine approach may help the immune system recognize and fight remaining cancer cells. Full press release below. SOURCE: UbiVac UbiVac Opens Trial of Next Generation Lung Cancer Vaccine SYDNEY, Nov. 5, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- UbiVac, a clinical stage cancer immunotherapy company based in Portland, OR, announced the results of a Phase I clinical trial and the initiation of a Phase II clinical trial of its first-in-class autophagosome DRibble vaccine, DPV-001, in two presentations at the 15th World Conference for Lung Cancer, in Sydney, from October 27-30. The multicenter, randomized Phase II clinical trial of DPV-001 is supported by a US$3.4 million National Cancer Institute (NCI) grant and will involve 48 individuals with definitively treated stage IIIA/B non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). A description of DPV-001, an "off-the-shelf vaccine," was presented by Dr. Helen Ross, Mayo Clinic Arizona, in an oral session (abstract #O-08.01). This next generation vaccine contains a system for targeting to dendritic cells, at least 9 cancer antigens prioritized by an NCI advisory panel and 5 toll-like receptor agonists to boost immunity. "Patients with locally advanced lung cancer still have a very high risk of cancer returning despite our most aggressive treatments," said Dr. Rachel Sanborn, the trial's principal investigator and the Co-Director of Thoracic Oncology, Providence Cancer Center, Portland, Oregon. "This novel vaccine approach may help the immune system recognize and fight remaining cancer cells." In a presentation of the Phase 1 trial in patients with Stage IV NSCLC, the authors reported that immune responses were detected in a majority of the evaluable patients (abstract # P-3.11-032). "UbiVac is excited to pioneer this first-in-class vaccine technology to patients with NSCLC," said Dr. Hong-Ming Hu, inventor of autophagosome DRibble technology, Co-founder and CSO of UbiVac. "In addition to lung cancer, UbiVac is actively pursuing the application of this technology, with our partners and collaborators, for the treatment of head and neck, hepatocellular, prostate, colon and breast cancer." UbiVac, spun-out from the Providence Health System in 2005, recently was judged by Oregon CEOs as the top "Presenting Company" at the Oregon Bioscience Association annual meeting has three vaccine platform technologies under development: DRibbles, a nanotechnology platform and a disabled cytomegalovirus (CMV) vector platform. The ongoing activities reported in this release are supported by the NCI of the National Institutes of Health under Award Numbers R44CA121612 and U43CA165048. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NCI or the National Institutes of Health. SOURCE: UbiVac CONTACT: UbiVac, Bernard Fox, 503-922-1160, PR@UbiVac.com