Empowered Patient Podcast

Matt D'Onofrio, Co-Founder, President, and Chief Operating Officer at Evoke Pharma, is developing a treatment to help patients with diabetic gastroparesis. This little-known disease is thought to be due to damage to the vagus nerve, interrupting the communication between the brain and gut, and stopping the stomach from functioning normally. Current treatments are a pill required to move through the stomach. Evoke has developed a nasal spray to treat the condition that bypasses the stomach and provides predictable relief.

Matt explains, "We developed a product called GIMOTI, or nasal metoclopramide. The interest behind doing so is to completely bypass the stomach to get a dose on board for patients. The unpredictable nature of the stomach makes dosing with pills very unpredictable. We know that a number of patients who take oral treatments don't find efficacy. We believe that's, in part, because of the stomach's problems itself."

"By developing the nasal format, or GIMOTI, we are able to avoid that unpredictable issue and get the product on board directly by spraying it into the nose and getting absorption straight through the thin membrane in your nostrils, getting the product into the bloodstream from there. We found that this is very helpful for patients who do have issues with any absorption problems. We also found it helpful for patients who are nauseated and vomiting because you can't vomit up a nasal spray. There have been a number of different things we found as the product has come on the market that's been helpful for it."

#EVOK #Evoke #FightGastroparesis #DGPAwareness #DiabeticGastroparesis

evokepharma.com

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Matt D'Onofrio, Co-Founder, President, and Chief Operating Officer at Evoke Pharma, is developing a treatment to help patients with diabetic gastroparesis. This little-known disease is thought to be due to damage to the vagus nerve, interrupting the communication between the brain and gut, stopping the stomach from functioning normally. Current treatments are a pill required to move through the stomach. Evoke has developed a nasal spray to treat the condition that bypasses the stomach and provides predictable relief.

Matt explains, "We developed a product called GIMOTI, or nasal metoclopramide. The interest behind doing so is to completely bypass the stomach to get a dose on board for patients. The unpredictable nature of the stomach makes dosing with pills very unpredictable. We know that a number of patients who take oral treatments don't find efficacy. We believe that's, in part, because of the stomach's problems itself."

"By developing the nasal format, or GIMOTI, we are able to avoid that unpredictable issue and get the product on board directly by spraying it into the nose and getting absorption straight through the thin membrane in your nostrils, getting the product into the bloodstream from there. We found that this is very helpful for patients who do have issues with any absorption problems. We also found it helpful for patients who are nauseated and vomiting because you can't vomit up a nasal spray. There have been a number of different things we found as the product has come on the market that's been helpful for it."

#EVOK #Evoke #FightGastroparesis #DGPAwareness #DiabeticGastroparesis

evokepharma.com

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Jared Bauer is the CEO of IONIQ Sciences which is exploring new ways to detect cancer at an earlier stage using non-invasive bioimpedance-based technology. This approach is not looking for the presence of cancer cells but rather changes in the interstitial fluid. Using a low level of electric current, the IONIQ AI-enhanced technology can identify where in the body the cancer is.

Jared explains, "It's a bioimpedance-based technology, and the way the system works is we inject a very low level of electrical current, not enough for you to feel. You can't even recognize that it's there. Still, we inject electrical current using DC power, direct current. If you just think physics 101, electricity 101, whatever you want to call it, DC power, the path of least resistance, and that electricity is going to go through the interstitial fluid. Then we pull that back out with an EKG electrode on the other side. And we're scanning that interstitial fluid over distances, allowing us to see that immune response."

"When someone doesn't have cancer, the ions or that electricity is going to flow freely. When someone does have cancer, a malignancy is present, and we see that cytokine storm, the changes in the chemokines, and the changes in the protein matrix. All of the interstitial fluid gets jumbled up, and those ions don't move as smoothly through. So over the course of a 20-minute, non-invasive test, just electrical current, it's all digital, we pull 10,000-plus data points from our scan, and we analyze that using our proprietary algorithm to give you an answer of malignant or benign."

#IONIQSciences #EarlyDetectionofCancer #Cancer #LungCancer #Bioimpedance #CancerScreening

ioniqsciences.com

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Jared Bauer is the CEO of IONIQ Sciences which is exploring new ways to detect cancer at an earlier stage using non-invasive bioimpedance-based technology. This approach is not looking for the presence of cancer cells but rather changes in the interstitial fluid. Using a low level of electric current, the IONIQ AI-enhanced technology can identify where in the body the cancer is.

Jared explains, "It's a bioimpedance-based technology, and the way the system works is we inject a very low level of electrical current, not enough for you to feel. You can't even recognize that it's there. Still, we inject electrical current using DC power, direct current. If you just think physics 101, electricity 101, whatever you want to call it, DC power, the path of least resistance, and that electricity is going to go through the interstitial fluid. Then we pull that back out with an EKG electrode on the other side. And we're scanning that interstitial fluid over distances, allowing us to see that immune response."

"When someone doesn't have cancer, the ions or that electricity is going to flow freely. When someone does have cancer, a malignancy is present, and we see that cytokine storm, the changes in the chemokines, and the changes in the protein matrix. All of the interstitial fluid gets jumbled up, and those ions don't move as smoothly through. So over the course of a 20-minute, non-invasive test, just electrical current, it's all digital, we pull 10,000-plus data points from our scan, and we analyze that using our proprietary algorithm to give you an answer of malignant or benign."

#IONIQSciences #EarlyDetectionofCancer #Cancer #LungCancer #Bioimpedance #CancerScreening

ioniqsciences.com

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Colin LeClair, CEO of Connections Health Solutions, shares his concerns about the lack of resources for people needing behavioral health crisis care and solutions for urgent and emergency psychiatric services in a facility-based setting. With a community-based approach, Connections partners with hospitals, care facilities, service providers, and law enforcement to better understand patients dealing with complex behavioral challenges and provide new alternatives for care.

Colin elaborates, "Right now, we have two of the largest crisis facilities, as we call them, in Arizona, one in Tucson and one in Phoenix. And those services include emergency psychiatric services, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Crisis stabilization services for patients who need a few days to recover and get back on their medication regimen and for whom we can prepare a care plan. In addition, there is an observation unit, a 23-hour observation unit for patients who are very acute and require immediate stabilization in a very unrestricted environment to get them back on their feet and on the path to recovery. The facilities look like small hospitals. We operate in about 20,000 to 40,000 square feet. We see about one thousand patients a month in each of our facilities."

"We take a lot of pride in saying that we never say no to a patient. And so the crisis is very self-defined. A patient who's in crisis may be having an anxiety attack, they may be new to the neighborhood, and they don't have a primary care physician or a primary psychiatric medical home. They just need a prescription refill. Or it could be somebody having a psychotic episode. We will treat anyone who comes to us."

"On the higher acuity end of the spectrum, about 60% of our patients arrive with first responders. They're often picked up in the community by first responders. And we're trying to be a better alternative for police and for the patient than going to an emergency department where treatment is not designed around a psychiatric patient or potentially jail. And so, again, 60% of our patients come to us involuntarily. We take a lot of pride in the fact that we are able to convert more than half of those patients to voluntary status. In other words, they agree to engage in their own treatment, and that's a very, very difficult thing to do."

#ConnectionsHealthSolutions #MentalHealthAwarenessMonth #MentalHealthAwarenessWeek #MentalHealthisImportant #CrisisSupport #SelfCare #MentalHealth #MentalHealthMatters #988

ConnectionsHS.com

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Colin LeClair, CEO of Connections Health Solutions, shares his concerns about the lack of resources for people needing behavioral health crisis care and solutions for urgent and emergency psychiatric services in a facility-based setting. With a community-based approach, Connections partners with hospitals, care facilities, service providers, and law enforcement to better understand patients dealing with complex behavioral challenges and provide new alternatives for care.

Colin elaborates, "Right now, we have two of the largest crisis facilities, as we call them, in Arizona, one in Tucson and one in Phoenix. And those services include emergency psychiatric services, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Crisis stabilization services for patients who need a few days to recover and get back on their medication regimen and for whom we can prepare a care plan. In addition, there is an observation unit, a 23-hour observation unit for patients who are very acute and require immediate stabilization in a very unrestricted environment to get them back on their feet and on the path to recovery. The facilities look like small hospitals. We operate in about 20,000 to 40,000 square feet. We see about one thousand patients a month in each of our facilities."

"We take a lot of pride in saying that we never say no to a patient. And so the crisis is very self-defined. A patient who's in crisis may be having an anxiety attack, they may be new to the neighborhood, and they don't have a primary care physician or a primary psychiatric medical home. They just need a prescription refill. Or it could be somebody having a psychotic episode. We will treat anyone who comes to us."

"On the higher acuity end of the spectrum, about 60% of our patients arrive with first responders. They're often picked up in the community by first responders. And we're trying to be a better alternative for police and for the patient than going to an emergency department where treatment is not designed around a psychiatric patient or potentially jail. And so, again, 60% of our patients come to us involuntarily. We take a lot of pride in the fact that we are able to convert more than half of those patients to voluntary status. In other words, they agree to engage in their own treatment, and that's a very, very difficult thing to do."

#ConnectionsHealthSolutions #MentalHealthAwarenessMonth #MentalHealthAwarenessWeek #MentalHealthisImportant #CrisisSupport #SelfCare #MentalHealth #MentalHealthMatters #988

ConnectionsHS.com

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Dr. Shankar Musunuri is the Co-Founder and CEO of Ocugen, which is a biotechnology company focused on vaccines for public health, gene therapies targeting rare diseases in the retinal space, and cell therapies for regenerative medicine applications in cartilage repair. One key opportunity is to develop an inhalation vaccine that would be durable and efficient at preventing and controlling transmission of COVID and able to be combined with a flu vaccine.

Shankar explains, "There is a linkage if you take some of these vaccines and gene therapies. Some of the processes we use to make gene therapies can also use similar processes for vaccines. So there is a shared science, a shared manufacturing platform, and shared expertise. And then if you take the biotech itself, cream-of-the-cream in the pharmaceutical industry, they work in cell and gene therapies and vaccines, very complex science."

"If you have a mucosal vaccine, which will create antibodies in the respiratory tract and control where the virus enters, it can neutralize it. And also, if you have neutralizing antibodies in your respiratory tract where the virus enters, you'll not only neutralize what is entering, it'll prevent transmission or control transmission of the disease."

"If we can move COVID into this annual booster, just like flu, we thought we could provide solutions for COVID, flu, and combination. So, imagine yourself walking into a CVS, and what Ocugen wants to do is provide solutions for customers. If you want only flu, you'll get your flu inhalation vaccine. You want only COVID, and you'll get that. If you want a combo, you're going to get a combo. So we created three different vaccines, COVID, flu and combination, using our inhalation technology and novel vector platform."

#Ocugen #Vaccines #InhalationVaccines #InhaledVaccines #COVID #Flu

ocugen.com

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Dr. Shankar Musunuri is the Co-Founder and CEO of Ocugen, which is a biotechnology company focused on vaccines for public health, gene therapies targeting rare diseases in the retinal space, and cell therapies for regenerative medicine applications in cartilage repair. One key opportunity is to develop an inhalation vaccine that would be durable and efficient at preventing and controlling transmission of COVID and able to be combined with a flu vaccine.

Shankar explains, "There is a linkage if you take some of these vaccines and gene therapies. Some of the processes we use to make gene therapies can also use similar processes for vaccines. So there is a shared science, a shared manufacturing platform, and shared expertise. And then if you take the biotech itself, cream-of-the-cream in the pharmaceutical industry, they work in cell and gene therapies and vaccines, very complex science."

"If you have a mucosal vaccine, which will create antibodies in the respiratory tract and control where the virus enters, it can neutralize it. And also, if you have neutralizing antibodies in your respiratory tract where the virus enters, you'll not only neutralize what is entering, it'll prevent transmission or control transmission of the disease."

"If we can move COVID into this annual booster, just like flu, we thought we could provide solutions for COVID, flu, and combination. So, imagine yourself walking into a CVS, and what Ocugen wants to do is provide solutions for customers. If you want only flu, you'll get your flu inhalation vaccine. You want only COVID, and you'll get that. If you want a combo, you're going to get a combo. So we created three different vaccines, COVID, flu and combination, using our inhalation technology and novel vector platform."

#Ocugen #Vaccines #InhalationVaccines #InhaledVaccines #COVID #Flu

ocugen.com

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Steve Glover, Co-founder and CEO of ZyVersa Therapeutics, focuses on rare kidney diseases and diseases with an inflammation component. Inflammasomes, the first response in the innate immune system, create an inflammation cascade. The ZyVersa approach targets multiple inflammasomes to address diseases caused by the malfunction of this response.

Steve explains, "Inflammation drives a lot of different diseases. And as we get into this a little bit more today, it's everything from kidney disease such as rare diseases such as FSGS and Alport syndrome and diabetic kidney disease all have an inflammation component. And in addition to that, when you look at diseases like Alzheimer's or MS, or Parkinson's, they're inflammation driven as well. So there is a connection between the two disease classes."

"I've been in the industry a long time, and every so often the industry finds a new interesting discovery, and inflammasomes are clearly one of those new discoveries. In fact, one of the things I talk about quite a bit is that ten years ago, there were about two or so publications that were available on inflammasomes. Now there are over 20,000 publications available on inflammasomes. And this whole concept of inflammation driving certain diseases has become an area of an immense amount of research and development of products that can inhibit the inflammation you don't want in the human body."

"When inflammasomes go into overdrive and are left uninhibited, they can cause a lot of damage to organs and cells in the body. And so, for example, they drive a lot of different diseases, everything from cancers to diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease, and a whole host of CNS diseases, as well as non-CNS diseases, that are driven by this inflammasome activation. So it's really important to find a way to inhibit those cytokines by inhibiting the inflammasome."

#ZyVersa $ZVSA #RareDisease #InflammatoryDiseases #KidneyDisease #RenalDisease #FSGS #FocalSegmentalGlomerulosclerosis #AlportSyndrome #DiabeticKidneyDisease #Inflammasomes

ZyVersa.com

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Steve Glover, Co-founder and CEO of ZyVersa Therapeutics, focuses on rare kidney diseases and diseases with an inflammation component. Inflammasomes, the first response in the innate immune system, create an inflammation cascade. The ZyVersa approach targets multiple inflammasomes to address diseases caused by the malfunction of this response.

Steve explains, "Inflammation drives a lot of different diseases. And as we get into this a little bit more today, it's everything from kidney disease such as rare diseases such as FSGS and Alport syndrome and diabetic kidney disease all have an inflammation component. And in addition to that, when you look at diseases like Alzheimer's or MS, or Parkinson's, they're inflammation driven as well. So there is a connection between the two disease classes."

"I've been in the industry a long time, and every so often the industry finds a new interesting discovery, and inflammasomes are clearly one of those new discoveries. In fact, one of the things I talk about quite a bit is that ten years ago, there were about two or so publications that were available on inflammasomes. Now there are over 20,000 publications available on inflammasomes. And this whole concept of inflammation driving certain diseases has become an area of an immense amount of research and development of products that can inhibit the inflammation you don't want in the human body."

"When inflammasomes go into overdrive and are left uninhibited, they can cause a lot of damage to organs and cells in the body. And so, for example, they drive a lot of different diseases, everything from cancers to diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease, and a whole host of CNS diseases, as well as non-CNS diseases, that are driven by this inflammasome activation. So it's really important to find a way to inhibit those cytokines by inhibiting the inflammasome."

#ZyVersa $ZVSA #RareDisease #InflammatoryDiseases #KidneyDisease #RenalDisease #FSGS #FocalSegmentalGlomerulosclerosis #AlportSyndrome #DiabeticKidneyDisease #Inflammasomes

ZyVersa.com

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