Latest news with #BostonChildren'sHospital
Yahoo
18 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Ovid Therapeutics to Host Investor and Media Event Thursday, June 12, 2025
Emerging Biomarkers in the Clinical Development of Epilepsy Medicines and OV329 Program Highlights NEW YORK, June 05, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ovid Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: OVID), a biopharmaceutical company dedicated to developing medicines for brain conditions with significant unmet need, will host an investor and media event on Thursday, June 12, 2025, on the topic of applying Biomarkers in Epilepsy, including their strategic use to demonstrate the pharmacodynamic activity of the Company's OV329 clinical development program. World-leading expert, Dr. Alexander Rotenberg will join company management to discuss the emerging use of a wide range of biomarkers for the study of anti-seizure medicines. The event will take place at Ovid's headquarters in New York's Hudson Yards from 9:30 to 10:30 am ET and will be webcast simultaneously. Sophisticated imaging and radiological tools are increasingly enabling medicines developers to leverage biomarkers earlier in clinical development to identify signals of biological target engagement and pharmacodynamic activity. Discussion will focus on how these tools drive evidence informed approaches in drug development and provide insight into potential clinical outcomes. Ovid management will describe the exploratory biomarkers in use to measure its next-generation GABA-aminotransferase (GABA-AT) inhibitor program, OV329, which is anticipated to have a topline readout in Q3 2025. Keynote speaker: Leading pediatric neurologist and epileptologist Alexander Rotenberg, M.D., Ph.D. Professor of Neurology at Boston Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, and Director of the Epilepsy Monitoring Unit at Boston Children's Hospital, and the Experimental Neurophysiology Core at F.M. Kirby Center of Neurobiology Unfortunately, nearly 40 percent of people living with epilepsy continue to experience seizures despite existing medicines. OV329 is a next-generation GABA-AT inhibitor, that was rationally designed to work differently from current medicines and may offer a novel approach for patients with treatment-resistant seizures. OV329 seeks to endogenously deliver optimal levels of GABA to reduce seizures and provide a preferable safety and tolerability profile relative to the first-generation, GABA-AT inhibitor, vigabatrin. OV329 is currently completing a Phase 1 study that is evaluating its effects on multiple pharmacodynamic biomarkers, safety, tolerability, and pharmacokinetics. Interested in attending or participating remotely: To register, please visit: Registration Link A live webcast of the presentation can be accessed through the Events & Presentations section of Ovid's website at About Ovid Therapeutics Ovid Therapeutics Inc. is a New York-based biopharmaceutical company dedicated to developing small molecule medicines for brain conditions with significant unmet need. The Company is advancing a pipeline of novel, targeted small molecule candidates that modulate the intrinsic and extrinsic factors involved in neuronal hyperexcitability causative of multiple neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders. Ovid is developing: OV329, a next-generation GABA-aminotransferase inhibitor, as a potential therapy for treatment-resistant seizures and other undisclosed indications; OV350, OV4071 and others within a library of compounds that directly activate the KCC2 transporter, for multiple CNS disorders. For more information about these and other Ovid research programs, please visit Forward-Looking Statements This press release includes certain disclosures by Ovid that contain 'forward-looking statements' including, without limitation: statements regarding the expected timing of initiation, completion, and results and data of Ovid's clinical studies; the potential use and development of OV329, OV350, OV4071 and other compounds from Ovid's library of direct activators of KCC2; and other statements that are not historical fact. You can identify forward-looking statements because they contain words such as 'anticipates,' 'believes,' 'expects,' 'intends,' 'may,' 'plan,' 'potentially,' and 'will,' and similar expressions (as well as other words or expressions referencing future events, conditions or circumstances). Forward-looking statements are based on Ovid's current expectations and assumptions. Because forward-looking statements relate to the future, they are subject to inherent uncertainties, risks and changes in circumstances that may differ materially from those contemplated by the forward-looking statements, which are neither statements of historical fact nor guarantees or assurances of future performance. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements include, without limitation, uncertainties inherent in the preclinical and clinical development and regulatory approval processes, risks related to Ovid's ability to achieve its financial objectives, the risk that Ovid may not be able to realize the intended benefits of its business strategy or unanticipated or greater than anticipated impacts or delays due to macroeconomic and geopolitical conditions. Additional risks that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements are set forth under the caption 'Risk Factors' in Ovid's most recently filed Annual Report on Form 10-K and Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission ('SEC'), and in subsequent and future filings Ovid makes with the SEC. Any forward-looking statements contained in this press release speak only as of the date hereof, and Ovid assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained herein, whether because of any new information, future events, changed circumstances or otherwise, except as otherwise required by law. Media and Investor Relations:Victoria Fort vfort@ in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
CBS News
17-04-2025
- Health
- CBS News
Nurse inspired to work at hospital that treated father now running Boston Marathon to support them
A nurse inspired to work at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital after they treated her father's brain injuries will be running for the hospital this Monday in the Boston Marathon. When Walter Rehak arrived at Spaulding in the back of an ambulance, he had recovered from the worst of his physical injuries. Rehak had survived a rollover crash in Peabody in January 2020. A medical helicopter lifted him from the highway to the hospital where he spent 10 days in a coma. Rehak broke his neck and his nose. He had a nasty gash on his forehead. He also had a Traumatic Brain Injury as a result of the impact. His daughter Sarah Rehak remembers one of the first hopeful signs as he emerged from the coma. "His eyes were still shut and he said, 'Hi, my girl.' And I was like…I lost it. Because I was like, OK, you know that that's what you still call me, you can speak, you remember," said Sarah. In that moment, Sarah knew that her dad remembered their nicknames. He knew who she was. Once he was transferred to Spaulding (part of Mass General Brigham), there were many more hopeful signs. Sarah, who was working as a health care administrator at Boston Children's Hospital at the time, watched his interaction with his doctors, nurses, and therapists. The care he received and the progress he made was striking. "Spaulding did give me hope that he would be OK," said Sarah. "Everyone was so friendly with him, he had his therapist that he loved and all his friends that are the employees. And just the change that they made day-to-day, I was like, I want to do this." It also lit a passion for patient care that inspired a career change. Because of her father's experience and recovery, Sarah left her job as a health care administrator at Boston Children's Hospital, went back to school full-time, and graduated with a nursing degree from the MGH Institute of Health Professions in 2023. She applied for a position at Spaulding even before graduation. The team with an open position was, incredibly, on the hospital's brain injury floor. Sarah began caring for patients where her father relearned the life skills to go home. Rehak remembers how therapists prepared him for life after rehab. "They said I needed speech therapy. I realize now it was brain therapy. They made me put together a schedule for a delivery from Jordan's Furniture. They made me figure out how to take the T from here to there. So, as much as that was my speech therapy, it was really making me think. If you're a Traumatic Brain Injury patient, you've gotta learn how to think," said Rehak. These days, he thinks about how fortunate he is to have recovered so well. Now two years on the job, Sarah knows she is where she is meant to be. "I just feel so at home," she said, smiling. "All the nurses. All the therapists. We work so well together. We are all so connected…I really enjoy coming to work every day. I love my patients, I just want to be the person that can give them a little light, a little optimism." Sharing her family's story often puts patients at ease in a frightening time. "I think it helps them because I've truly been through it. I know how scared they are," said Sarah. Nursing Director Mariana Parga, RN points to Sarah's sunny demeanor as another superpower. "She's always happy. And she has this great story to tell of her dad's success which helps them feel that they can also succeed here. So I think that's truly special," said Parga. Pointing out her dad's old room, 720, Sarah laughs that she and her family used to consider the room the "penthouse" because of its corner position and its view of the Tobin Bridge. Her dad used to watch the traffic on the bridge so that his visitors knew when to make the drive to Spaulding. "Depending on the situation, I'll share my story with the patient who's in that room," said Sarah. One of Sarah's patients is 20-year-old Theo Visco, who came to Spaulding after a skiing accident. "When I first got here, I couldn't even move my right side at all," said Visco. "And now I'm basically walking." He said the consistent support is key. "It just means a lot to actually have that one-on-one connection with someone." On Marathon Monday, Sarah will cross a bridge of her own, from "casual runner" to marathoner. When Spaulding put out the call for Boston Marathon bib number applications, Sarah applied. When she got word that she had been accepted, she was overwhelmed with emotion. "I started crying happy tears and ran into my boss' office. We were just jumping up and down!" Her next thought? "I've gotta start training!" As one of 70 runners on Spaulding's Race for Rehab team, she is also fundraising for the hospital. To date, the team has raised $700,000 on its way to a $950,000 goal. Sarah's dad will be at Mile 16 on the Wellesley-Newton border to cheer her on. His journey to wellness now complete, Sarah said she will dedicate her marathon to the patients at Spaulding who are working to regain their strength right now. "I think me and my family see it as kind of a legacy thing from a standpoint of this is where I got well, started my journey to wellness," said Rehak. "And I think she sees the good that's done here." "They've all gone through traumatic health scares and injuries. And I just want to be the person who can give them a little light, a little optimism that the hardest parts are, hopefully, now over and they're starting their recovery."
Boston Globe
15-04-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
Trump administration freezes more than $2 billion in funding tied to Harvard
'The harassment of Jewish students is intolerable. It is time for elite universities to take the problem seriously and commit to meaningful change if they wish to continue receiving taxpayer support,' the statement said. The funding freeze includes $2.2 billion in grants and $60 million in contracts, according to the task force, which is a joint enterprise of several federal agencies. Advertisement In an open letter to the campus community Monday afternoon, Harvard president Alan Garber said, 'No government — regardless of which party is in power — should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue.' That message followed a Friday letter from the task force telling Harvard's leaders to agree to a lengthy list of conditions in order to 'maintain Harvard's financial relationship with the federal government.' The letter directed Harvard to weaken the influence of students and faculty involved in activism on university affairs. It ordered external audits of specific academic programs accused of antisemitism or other forms of bias. It told the school to reorient its admissions and hiring practices to prioritize 'viewpoint diversity' and deemphasize race, religion, and sex. It said the university must 'reform' the way it admits international students to screen out anyone 'hostile' to 'American values' or 'supportive of terrorism or antisemitism.' Advertisement And it demanded that Harvard regularly report various kinds of information to the federal government, including all admissions data and any rule violations by foreign students. In their response Monday, lawyers representing Harvard said the university 'has undertaken substantial policy and programmatic measures' during the last 15 months to fight antisemitism, promote ideological diversity, and maintain order on campus. 'Harvard remains open to dialogue about what the university has done, and is planning to do, to improve the experience of every member of its community. But Harvard is not prepared to agree to demands that go beyond the lawful authority of this or any administration,' the lawyers wrote. It was not immediately clear which grants and contracts were to be frozen. On March 31, the task force announced a review of $9 billion in federal funding destined for Harvard and affiliated institutions, including Mass General Brigham, Boston Children's Hospital, and the Broad Institute. Mike Damiano can be reached at
Boston Globe
04-04-2025
- Health
- Boston Globe
Government memo reveals research projects targeted in Harvard review
That contract is just one of many on the list for Boston Children's Hospital. In total, the hospital's contracts now under review are valued at more than $122 million. The list also includes $98 million of contracts with Harvard University itself, including the School of Public Health contract. The memo was sent to Harvard's leaders on March 31 by the US General Services Administration, one of the agencies participating in the antisemitism task force. Advertisement It put Harvard on notice that nearly $9 billion of funding would be placed under review. The vast majority of the funding, $8.7 billion, was in the form of 'multi-year grant commitments,' but no other details were provided. By contrast, the memo provided a specific list of federal research contracts, and said the government was prepared to issue 'Stop Work Orders' for all of them. Advertisement It also invoked a broad authority to cancel any contract 'for convenience.' Many federal contracts include clauses that grant the government broad discretion to cancel them. The contract for tuberculosis funding with the Harvard School of Public Health supports labs across the country working on vaccine development, according to publicly available data on federal research contracts. Another contract with Boston Children's Hospital funds studies on whether the Covid vaccine reduces Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in children, according to publicly available records. There is also a contract with Boston Children's funding development for a vaccine to prevent opioid addiction. One contract with Mass General Brigham worth $8 million, according to the memo, came from the US Special Operations Command, which hired the hospital to provide research and technical services related to traumatic brain injuries, according to publicly available records. On Thursday, the Trump administration sent Harvard a list of demands detailing what the school's leaders must do to avoid cancellation of federal funding. The list included: shuttering diversity offices, implementing 'merit-based' admissions and hiring practices, cooperating with federal immigration authorities, and altering student disciplinary procedures. The Trump administration contends those measures will help combat antisemitism and reduce what officials have described as illegal race-based discrimination. In a He also said: 'We fully embrace the important goal of combatting antisemitism, one of the most insidious forms of bigotry' and that Harvard would 'engage with members of the federal government's task force to combat antisemitism to ensure that they have a full account of the work we have done and the actions we will take going forward to combat antisemitism.' Advertisement The institutions targeted in the review include Harvard University itself and its affiliated teaching hospitals and research institutions, such as Mass General Brigham, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston Children's Hospital, and the Broad Institute, according to the list of contracts included in the memo. The memo describes the $255 million as a 'ceiling value.' That may be a reference to the fact that some of the contracts have already been partially paid out and at least one has already been canceled in a separate round of federal research funding cuts, according to a Globe review of federal contract data. The antisemitism task force says its goal is to investigate universities that have violated civil rights laws by allegedly failing to protect Jewish students from antisemitic harassment related to the campus protest movement over the Israel-Hamas war. At Columbia University last month, the task force used threats to federal funding to compel the school's leaders to accept a list of demands related to antisemitism and campus protest. Some have questioned the legality of the task force's methods. Although the government may legally withhold federal funding for civil rights violations, there was no public process to adjudicate the the accusations against Columbia before the task force paused $400 million of funding for the school last month. Tyler Coward, a lawyer with the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a free speech advocacy group, said the Trump administration's reliance on the convenience clause in federal contracts may be a way for the task force to bypass the formal process that would require the government to present evidence for its claims. Advertisement Neena Hagen of the Globe staff contributed to this report. Mike Damiano can be reached at
New York Times
21-03-2025
- Health
- New York Times
One Doctor's Quest for the Truth About Convicted Killer Lucy Letby
When Dr. Shoo Lee, one of Canada's most renowned neonatologists, wrote an academic paper in 1989, he never imagined it would one day help convict a British nurse of murder. But more than three decades after his paper was published, that is what happened. Lucy Letby, a former nurse in a neonatal unit in northern England, was found guilty in two trials in 2023 and 2024 of the murder or attempted murder of 14 babies in her care, and sentenced to life in prison, where she remains today. The case rocked Britain, seeming to expose a remorseless serial killer who, prosecutors said, used a bizarre range of techniques to kill her tiny, often very premature, victims: Injecting them with air, overfeeding them with milk or contaminating their feeds with insulin. For seven of the murder or attempted murder charges, the prosecution's lead expert witness relied on Dr. Lee's 1989 paper on a rare complication in newborns — pulmonary vascular air embolism — to argue that Ms. Letby had intentionally injected air into their veins. The only problem? The expert witness had misinterpreted his work, Dr. Lee says. 'What they were claiming was that this baby collapsed and had skin discoloration, therefore that equals air embolism,' said Dr. Lee, 68, in an interview in London last month. But, he said, 'That is not what the research shows.' That realization set Dr. Lee on a moral mission to review Ms. Letby's case. Working pro bono, he gathered 14 specialists from around the world to assess the clinical evidence. Last month, he revealed their explosive findings — that 'there was no medical evidence to support malfeasance causing death or injury' in any of the babies that Ms. Letby was charged with harming. 'If there's no malfeasance, there's no murder. If there's no murder, there's no murderer,' Dr. Lee said, adding, 'And if there's no murderer, what is she doing in prison?' Ms. Letby has exhausted her avenues to appeal in the courts. Her only hope now lies with a small, independent body, the Criminal Cases Review Commission, which is responsible for investigating possible miscarriages of justice. 'I didn't know whether she was innocent or guilty' Dr. Lee, who retired in 2021 to a farm in rural Alberta, knew almost nothing about Ms. Letby's case until an email landed in his inbox in October 2023. Ms. Letby had always maintained her innocence, and her lawyer wanted Dr. Lee to review the medical evidence. 'I thought it was spam at first, because how often do you get an email like that?' Dr. Lee said. After a second email, he realized the request was real. Dr. Lee had spent his entire career focused on the youngest patients. After completing medical school in his native Singapore, he moved to Canada and trained in pediatrics before undertaking a neonatal fellowship at Boston Children's Hospital and later a Ph.D. in health policy at Harvard. In 1995, he created the Canadian Neonatal Network, connecting specialists from across the country to improve outcomes for newborns. He became pediatrician-in-chief at Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto, and in 2019, he received the Order of Canada for introducing best practices that reduced infant mortality. As he studied Lucy Letby's trial transcripts, Dr. Lee immediately knew his research had been misinterpreted. 'I didn't know whether she was innocent or guilty,' he recalls. 'But regardless of whether you're innocent or guilty, you cannot be convicted on wrong evidence. That's just wrong.' He agreed to help with Ms. Letby's request for an appeal, writing to England's Court of Appeal and later providing live video testimony. But the court ultimately denied her request, saying Dr. Lee's testimony should have been introduced at trial. It was then that Dr. Lee decided to assemble a team of neonatal specialists to look into the case. 'This panel, you're not going to find a better group of people,' he said, rattling off a list that included the head of neonatology at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, a former president of Britain's Royal College of Pediatrics and the former director of the neonatal intensive care unit of Boston Children's Hospital. The key caveat Dr. Lee insisted on was that the panel's review would be released no matter their findings — even if they strengthened the case that Ms. Letby was guilty. 'You're going to get disasters' The experts, who all worked on a voluntary basis, forensically assessed the cause of death or deterioration for each of the 17 babies whom Ms. Letby was initially charged with murdering or attempting to murder. Two experts separately examined the medical notes of each baby. If their assessments differed, a third expert was brought in. The process was painstaking and took four months. But the final results were clear, Dr. Lee said. 'In all cases, death or injury were due to natural causes or just bad medical care,' he told the news conference last month. In the case of one baby, for instance, the prosecution argued at trial that she had been stable and had died from an injection of air into her IV line, causing an embolism. But the independent review found, based on her medical records, that she had died of sepsis and pneumonia, and that the mother, who went into labor prematurely, had not been given antibiotics to prevent infection. In another case, a baby born at 25 weeks was intubated using the wrong size of endotracheal tube. While the prosecution alleged that Ms. Letby attempted to murder the infant by dislodging the tube, the experts found the baby's condition deteriorated because of injury caused by intubation with a tube that was too large, and because a doctor did not understand 'the basics of resuscitation, air leak, mechanical ventilation, and how equipment that were commonly used in the unit work.' Some of the hospital staff, the panel concluded, were caring for the most critically ill or premature babies in a unit that was only meant to treat babies with lesser needs. 'You're asking doctors in places without the expertise, without the infrastructure, to look after babies that they they're not prepared to do,' Dr. Lee said. 'And if you do that, then you're going to get disasters.' Nobody ever saw Ms. Letby harming a baby, and major questions were first raised about her guilt in a New Yorker article in May 2024. In the months since, dozens of experts in medicine and statistics have voiced concerns about the evidence. Dr. Dewi Evans, the prosecution's lead expert witness, did not respond to requests for comment, but he has publicly criticized the panel's work and said he stands by his testimony. The Countess of Chester Hospital, where the deaths took place, said it was focused on an ongoing police investigation and on a public inquiry that was set up by the government last year to investigate how a serial killer could get away with such crimes for so long. Earlier this week, the hospital's former managers requested a halt to that inquiry, in the wake of Dr. Lee's review, but the judge refused, saying that the inquiry was never focused on examining Ms. Letby's guilt. Mark McDonald, Ms. Letby's current lawyer, plans to include Dr. Lee's full expert report in his application to the Criminal Cases Review Commission, which can refer cases back to the Court of Appeal. The commission said in a statement last month that it had 'received a preliminary application in relation to Ms. Letby's case, and work has begun to assess the application.' The mother of a child whom Ms. Letby was convicted of attempting to murder denounced the expert panel's assessment, and a spokesman for the C.C.R.C. asked 'that everyone remembers the families affected.' Dr. Lee insisted that those families were one of his central concerns as he analyzed the cases, after spending four decades caring for babies. 'I can tell you one thing: Families want to know the truth,' he said. 'They want to know the truth, regardless of whether it is painful or not painful. They want to know what really happened.'
