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Resolving the Leukemia Disease Through Novartis CAR T-cell Therapy

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently gave a thumbs up for Novartis CAR T-cell therapy, which is hoped to become a breakthrough treatment. Novartis CAR T-cell therapy takes genetically engineered blood cells of the patient and transforms them into an army of assassins that seek out and eliminate leukemia cells.

Cancer is the second most common cause of death in the United States, according to the American Cancer Society. More than 1.5 million people are reported to have cancer, and more than 575,000 people die every year because of it. Leukemia affects blood and bone cells and is one of the more common cancers for children.

Last summer, the FDA approved Novartis CAR T-Cell therapy drug, Kymriah, for use in treating specific types of leukemia in younger people.

According to Dr. Stephan Grupp of Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, “This is a brand new way of treating cancer.” Grupp made headlines for treating Emily Whitehead, the first child to receive Novartis CAR T-cell therapy for pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

The approval of Novartis CAR T-cell therapy is essential because it is the first gene therapy for cancer in the U.S. market.

Together with the help of the University of Pennsylvania, Novartis Pharmaceuticals introduced CAR T-cell therapy to the world. The business has been tasked with bringing the treatment to the broader market and making it available to far more people than the experimental program could reach.

Novartis Searches for the Cure

Joseph Jimenez, the former CEO of Novartis Pharmaceuticals, said, “At Novartis, we have a long history of being at the forefront of transformative cancer treatment.”

Novartis CAR T-Cell Therapy: Futuristic DNA spike

The treatment is still expensive at this time, coming in at $475,000. However, the company stated that there would be no charge for those who didn’t show a response within a month. Over time, the costs will come down as the drug treatment becomes more widespread and commonly available.

Headed by new CEO Vasant “Vas” Narasimhan, Novartis is breaking ground with new lifesaving treatments. The company is pursuing new solutions for cancer.

Last summer, the FDA approved Novartis CAR T-Cell therapy drug, Kymriah, for use in treating specific types of leukemia in younger people. There had been some controversy associated with the drug, and the death in at least one instance of an elderly patient in France.

But the drug is believed to hold great promise in treating childhood leukemia. This may be a breakthrough not only for medical treatment but also for how medicine is delivered through the private market to the broadest range of patients at the least cost. It is a bold action that will have bold consequences for people living with cancer everywhere.

3D Printing Security Risks Threaten Public Health and Safety

The use of 3D printing is widespread, creating bold impacts in various fields and industries. Its popularity is due to a number of factors, including the availability of more materials used in producing 3D-printed objects, from plastic to steel to living tissue. Some researchers even started generating non-conventional products such as human organs. The continuous development of the 3D technology has evolved from a backwater of research laboratories to become part of the mainstream culture. However, for this development, precautionary measures are needed from threats on the cybersecurity risks of 3D printing.

It is easy to imagine the magnitude of damage that critical health products using defective parts will create when malicious programs compromise those parts.

3D printing cuts the time and cost of creating new objects. When creating a 3D-printed object, there is no need to go through the usual route of creating molds, assembling hundreds or thousands of components, and then constructing an object from several pieces. 3D printing can create multi-dimensional objects from a three-dimensional CAD drawing, with the object printed one thin layer at a time. It gives the printer more creativity and control over the final shape of the object to be created. This method of creating an object is faster, especially for prototypes or one-of-a-kind pieces – items are finished in a matter of hours instead of days or weeks.

Many people are optimistic that 3D printing will take over the mainstream manufacturing of goods, eliminating most of the manpower requirements of traditional factories. Experts have projected that in the near future, nearly everything will be produced through 3D printing. The expectation is that life will be easier and a lot more convenient when we get to the point that people could simply print things that they need. Everyone could imagine the world where you don’t have to run to plumbing supplies store to buy a replacement for your broken faucet valve. All you need to do is print one and install it.

Security analysts, however, do not share the same optimism about the future of 3D printing. They warned the public on the likelihood of 3D printing devices becoming compromised due to security breaches. People with ill intentions could take advantage of some vulnerability in the system and introduce malicious programs that will result in undetectable and dangerous defects in the products created. This will have a bold impact not only in the lives of 3D printer users, but for the general public as well.

Security breaches or cyberattacks directed at 3D printers could pose grave threats to the people’s health and security. When critical infrastructures around the world are using parts that are created by 3D printing, it is not farfetched to believe that criminals could paralyze transportation, aviation, communications, and most importantly, health care.

Risks and Threats from Online Exposure

It is easy to imagine the magnitude of damage that critical health products using defective parts will create when malicious programs compromise those parts. Parts for critical industries such as automotive and aerospace may be printed using additive methods that have no reliable means of verification.

Man printing a heart.

The security risks become higher when a company decides to outsource the 3D printing of the component parts for their products. Outsourcing to a third party is mainly governed by the desire to save money. Instead of investing heavily on expensive, top of the line 3D printers, it will be cheaper to outsource to companies that already have existing 3D printers. These offsite 3D printers are exposed even more to the risk of a security breach (through having multiple clients), resulting in defective parts that will be used in critical infrastructures.

Companies that have their 3D printing outsourced make the designs in-house, leaving the contract 3D printers with no way of verifying whether the designs have been tampered with or not. One safeguard that can be instituted here is the verification of the authenticity of the in-house digital files to be submitted to the contracted 3D printer. They should also verify the physical object produced through 3D printing to ensure that it was not subjected to a design flaw as a result of hacking.

The possibility of design hacking in 3D printing is as common today as the typical hacking of computers by cyber criminals. The bold impact of hacking makes it imperative to continue the battle against these negative cyber elements.

Blockchain AI for Healthcare

The bold idea behind the doc.ai system will allow the patient data to reflect a complete medical history.

There is a shortage of medical professionals worldwide, and experts predict it will not improve much in the coming years. The challenge is not just in the numbers, but also in the training, knowledge, and skills necessary for doctors, nurses, and other medical employees to do their jobs. In a bold move by doc.ai, the company addresses the issue of the lack of familiarity – generally it takes time for doctors to acquaint themselves with new medical technologies. The company created an artificial intelligence in healthcare (AI) tech that uses natural language processing and is based on blockchain technology.

Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare

The startup company doc.ai developed a bold idea which allows an AI agent to discuss medical conditions with patients directly without a real life doctor. The natural language processing platform will translate test results, history, and a database of symptoms and diseases into regular human language. The patient’s history will reside in a blockchain technology platform which will serve as a repository for all of the person’s tests, conditions, medications, and consultations. This would allow the data about the person to accumulate, which can then be accessed by different AI agents.

One example of how this can be used is when a test is done and a test analysis machine interprets them. This eliminates the need for the results to be interpreted elsewhere, as all the necessary information is already at hand for the test machine to create a diagnosis.

This concept of a decentralized AI will help to clear any bottlenecks and artificial instances of bureaucracy. The streamlined workflow will make the diagnosis and analysis procedures go faster.

Solving the Shortage of Doctors

The Impact of Blockchain in Healthcare Industry

The Bold Impact of Blockchain Infographic

Healthcare companies will see an improvement in patient care, and patients will experience a better and more knowledgeable diagnostics process. The bold idea behind the doc.ai system will allow the patient data to reflect a complete medical history. In addition, the AI portion would be able to pour through available literature for a much improved diagnosis. The ability to access test data would also be a big help in delivering a quick and accurate diagnosis. In turn, this will provide more personalized and intelligent healthcare, that other medical professionals can access for medical history and reference.

The use of blockchains would mean that the data is kept private with the patient. It does not reside in a hospital repository or clinic archive. In addition, this will also let patients get a second opinion through other professionals with an option to escalate if necessary.

The use of AI in medicine has long been anticipated, mainly due to the big amount of information available which no single person might have access to. With the use of an AI, this information can be accessed and retrieved at will. It is also expected to lessen any mistakes in diagnosis.

 

Recently, doc.ai had an initial sale of its Simple Agreements for Future Tokens (SAFT) to institutional and other accredited investors. A SAFT is convertible to a digital token called the NRN or “Neuron” at the launch of doc.ai. The number of NRN is proportional to the number of neurons in the human brain, which is 86 billion. One NRN is equivalent to 100 neurons, and there will be 860 million NRN to be released. About 37% of NRNs will be sold through the SAFT offering. The SAFT sale follows prescribed sales of securities and need to comply with applicable laws and regulations. The proceeds of the SAFT sales will go to the continuing development of doc.ai technology and platforms.

Battery Storage for Renewable Energy —The Demand, Prices and Savings

A behind-the-meter power system is designed to provide a building or a facility with a renewable energy source that will reduce its carbon footprint by generating electricity on the rooftops. This invention of battery storage for renewable energy can typically reduce a building’s electrical consumption by about 80 percent, creating a bold impact as it can drastically change the way renewable energy is used and stored in the years to come.

In this behind-the-meter power system, a local renewable source such as solar photovoltaic (PV) panel system will reduce the building’s consumption of electricity purchased from the utility company’s power grid. Interestingly, behind-the-meter battery storage can take the building or facility off the electrical grid for parts of the day and can provide insurance against power failures or outages. Its use will also allow the building to buy electricity at the lowest rates possible, switching to the stored power during peak hours when the rate is at its highest.

In Focus: Battery Storage for Renewable Energy

In truth, solar PV has been around for many years. However, people did not find the idea feasible because of the cost of battery storage. Back then, people with solar PV in their rooftops ended up using the electricity generated at the time it was generated, which was mostly during mid-day when electrical consumption at home was at its lowest. Another option is to export the electricity generated by the solar PV to the electrical grid through a feed-in tariff.

The availability of cheaper battery storage opened a new option for people with solar PV on their rooftops—store the electricity generated and use it in the evening or during peak hours even when the sun is not shining.  The presence of an aggregator makes it possible to sell the electricity generated by the solar PV into the ancillary service markets. There is also the opportunity to sell or trade the electricity to neighbors. This idea, together with an efficient energy management system, could turn electricity consumers into prosumers—that is, active participants in the energy market. The passive electricity consumers will be transformed into having control over energy production and consumption. When properly utilized, the meter battery storage together with the available technologies and trading models will determine the future of the energy market.

Limiting Factor: Steep Prices

The main stumbling block for the widespread adoption of the behind-the-meter battery storage for renewable energy is its cost. While the concept has been around for a number of years, it was only recently that the battery cost was significantly reduced, paving the way for many stakeholders to get involved in commercial-scale production.

Notably, battery storage technology keeps on improving mainly because of the demand from the manufacturers of electric vehicles. Production is expected to ramp up with Tesla’s Gigafactory in Sparks, Nevada. It is planned to be at full production capacity in 2020, with an output of 150 gigawatt-hours (GWh) per year. The Gigafactory aims not only to provide storage batteries for electric vehicles but also to transition the world to sustainable energy production and consumption. Currently, there are signs that the world is slowly stepping into the threshold of that transition. In 2016, the battery storage market accounts for about 100 megawatts (MW), which is projected to grow to 3,800 MW by 2025.

Worldwide, the market for behind-the-meter battery storage is relatively small. There are still very few countries that show serious interest in the new system—such as Germany, Australia, Japan and the United States.

The Market for Battery Storage for Renewable Energy

a photo of the Dallas Skyline and written data about 5 million people saving energy

The U.S. market for behind-the-meter battery storage is emerging to be commercially viable for large-scale production. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) of the U.S. Department of Energy, along with the Clean Energy Group (CEG), made their first comprehensive public analysis available to the public. This analysis details the potential size of the market for commercial behind-the-meter battery storage for renewable energy in the country.

Based on the analysis of more than 10,000 utility tariffs made by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in 48 states, more than five million out of the 18 million commercial customers across the continental U.S. could potentially reduce their utility bills with the adoption of the battery storage technologies.

The findings of the study are included in the white paper prepared by the NREL and CEG titled, “Identifying Potential Markets for Behind-the-Meter Battery Energy Storage: A Survey of U.S. Demand Charges”.

The researchers in the study took into consideration the commercial customers who are eligible for utility rate tariffs which included $15 or more demand charges per kilowatt, the industry’s benchmark in identifying economic opportunities for the behind-the-meter storage.

A Market That’s Ripe for the Picking

The study estimated that about five million electricity consumers were at or above the threshold. They constitute about a quarter of the commercial electricity consumers in the U.S., presenting a commercially substantial market opportunity for the behind-the-meter battery storage. Markedly, the use of stored energy will control the peak demand for electricity, thus resulting in lower electricity bills because of the reduced demand charges. The economic viability of the use of battery storage for renewable energy will benefit not only the first-mover states, such as New York and California, but also other states across the whole country.

Electricity consumers in states like Alabama, Georgia, Michigan, Kentucky and Ohio are often subjected to utility tariffs due to high-demand charges. These states make behind-the-meter battery storage a viable economic investment. The continuous decline in the cost of battery storage for renewable energy due to the increased demand and ramped-up production make the market potential for battery storage more promising than ever.

The elephant in the room has been the utility demand charges, which cover most of the medium-to-large commercial customers in all of the states. It is a big piece of the puzzle that no one wants to question or discuss in detail with authorities. Instead, consumers just voice their concern over the spiraling energy bills they receive each month to their family or friends.

Savings In the Horizon for Consumers

Electric utility consumers pay for different electric services. There is a basic customer charge, a set fee typically paid on a monthly basis. Large electricity users are charged for demand—which is measured in kilowatts (kW)—based on the demand meters that measure electricity flow based on the highest 15-minute flow average within a billing period. For a customer that uses a lot of electrical power for a brief period of time and uses less electrical power the rest of the time, their demand charge is based on the time that he uses the most electrical power.

Such a type of demand-based charge could be avoided if, at the time when the customer needs to use a lot of electrical power, he switches to the stored electricity in the behind-the-meter battery storage instead of sourcing it from the utility company power grid. Simply avoiding peaks in electricity consumption eliminates the payment of electricity demand charges, resulting in a lot of savings in a person’s monthly electric bill.

The Future with Renewable Energy

The demand charges impact a wide array of customers, including public buildings, multifamily housing units, community facilities and nonprofit businesses. The spike in electricity use resulted in these entities paying demand charges that take up 30 to 70 percent of their utility bills. By installing the behind-the-meter battery storage for renewable energy, these entities will be able to channel their savings to other productive investments. Also, it is worth mentioning that there are other charges that different power utilities place in their billings in addition to all that’s been mentioned. These charges usually depend on government regulations as well as whether the company generates its own power within the state.

In general, the use of battery storage for renewable energy is increasing because of economics. This bold action stems from the fact that it is becoming cheaper to generate your own power, rather than to depend solely on electric utilities. If this trend continues, we can be well on our way to using renewable sources of power at much larger scales in the next few years.

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