- New center for kids with sickle cell disease aims to fill void in Southern Nevada (reviewjournal.com)
Children in the Las Vegas Valley who have sickle cell disease soon will be able to visit a one-stop hub for medical care and social services to help them cope with the painful, sometimes debilitating blood disorder...The new Sickle Cell Treatment Center will open at the Children’s Specialty Center of Nevada, 3121 S. Maryland Parkway, by the end of October, according to Dr. Nik Abdul Rashid, director of the sickle cell center...The center will provide patients with access to a multidisciplinary team, including doctors, a social worker and a clinical research associate, who can help with everything from psychological assessments to communicating with a child’s school about the impact of the disease, Rashid said...the new center will help ensure kids with sickle cell disease receive adequate care while also giving parents the information and resources they need to be the best caregivers they can be...
- Novartis buys another 2.5 percent in Israel’s Gamida Cell (reuters.com)
Swiss drugmaker Novartis will invest up to an extra $15 million in Gamida Cell, an Israeli developer of stem cell therapies…Novartis last year invested $35 million in the company for a 15 percent stake…$15 million investment will be used to advance Gamida Cell's clinical programs, including the development of NiCord, an experimental treatment for patients with high risk hematological malignancies, or blood cancers such as leukemia and lymphoma and sickle cell disease…Gamida plans to initiate a Phase III clinical trial with NiCord in mid-2016.