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Stemline Therapeutics, whose drug for a rare, aggressive type of acute leukemia was approved by the FDA about 18 months ago, has signed an acquisition deal with Italian biopharma Menarini Group.

Stemline (NASDAQ: STML), a New York-based company, developed the first FDA-approved drug for blastic plasmacytoid dendritic cell neoplasm, or BPDCN. The drug, tagraxofusp (Elzonris) targets CD123, a cell surface protein associated with the blood cancer.

The Menarini transaction is worth up to $677 million, according to the companies, which announced the agreement Monday. Under the deal terms Menarini, which is headquartered in Florence, plans to acquire Stemline shares at $12.50 apiece, split into $11.50 up front and another $1 upon the first sale of its drug in France, Germany, Italy, Spain or the United Kingdom following approval by the European Commissionas long as it occurs on or before the end of 2021.

Stemline requested European regulators review the drug as a treatment for adult BPDCN patients in January 2019, according to its latest annual report.

US sales of the drug brought in $43.2 million in 2019, its first year on the market. That year the company reported a net loss of $76.8 million.

Menarini CEO Elcin Barker Ergun, in a statement, said the acquisition would expand the Italian companys presence in the US and strengthen its oncology portfolio. The privately held biopharma says its annual sales top $4.2 billion.

As part of the Italian drug maker, Stemline plans to continue its efforts to launch the BPDCN drug outside of the US and to advance it as a potential treatment for other diseases. Stemline is also evaluating the drug in Phase 1/2 trials as a treatment for patients with chronic myelomonocytic leukemia, myelofibrosis, and acute myeloid leukemia.

Stemline saw its stock price soar on the acquisition announcement, rising to $12.10 in a jump of more than 150 percent compared to its close at $4.75 per share Friday. When Stemline went public in 2013, it priced its shares at $10 apiece.

Founded in 2003 by current CEO Ivan Bergstein, the companys approach to drug development is based on research into what are known as cancer stem cells, or cancerous cells that act like stem cells in that they reproduce themselves and sustain the cancer, showing outsize ability to resist chemotherapy and other standard cancer treatments. Read more about Stemlines origins in this Xconomy piece from 2011.

Both companies boards of directors have OKd the tie-up. If shareholders agree, the firms anticipate the deal will close this quarter.

Image: iStock/ChiccoDodiFC

Sarah de Crescenzo is an Xconomy editor based in San Diego. You can reach her at sdecrescenzo@xconomy.com.

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Stemline Slated for Acquisition by Menarini in Deal Worth Up to $677M - Xconomy

NEW YORK, N.Y., and TEL AVIV, Israel, May 07, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BrainStorm Cell Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: BCLI), a leading developer of adult stem cell therapies for neurodegenerative diseases, announced today a lease agreement with the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center (Sourasky)in Tel Aviv, Israel, to produce NurOwn in three state-of-the-art cleanrooms. The new facility will significantly increase the Companys capacity to manufacture and ship its product into the European Union and the local Israeli market. The cleanroom facility is part of Souraskys Institute for Advanced Cellular Therapies.

"Sourasky Hospital is a leader in the advancement and manufacturing of cell and gene therapy products and is well-equipped to rapidly scale up and produce NurOwn," stated Prof. Ronni Gamzu, CEO of Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center. "We look forward to continuing our work with BrainStorm to bring NurOwn to ALS patients and help fulfill the clinical therapy demands for the Companys pipeline programs.

"Sourasky Hospital, known for introducing pioneering solutions into clinical practice and advancing patient care, has a first rate team with the proven experience to produce regenerative products in accordance to the highest standard of cGMP manufacturing," said Chaim Lebovits, CEO of BrainStorm. "This agreement will ensure that we can provide NurOwn to patients after regulatory approval, not only in Israel but we have secured capacity to rapidly scale up production as we advance our investigational treatment across the European Union. We are very pleased to be able to expand our ongoing collaboration with Sourasky Hospital, one of the worlds most innovative and respected medical centers."

About NurOwn NurOwn (autologous MSC-NTF) cells represent a promising investigational therapeutic approach to targeting disease pathways important in neurodegenerative disorders. MSC-NTF cells are produced from autologous, bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) that have been expanded and differentiated ex vivo. MSCs are converted into MSC-NTF cells by growing them under patented conditions that induce the cells to secrete high levels of neurotrophic factors. Autologous MSC-NTF cells can effectively deliver multiple NTFs and immunomodulatory cytokines directly to the site of damage to elicit a desired biological effect and ultimately slow or stabilize disease progression. BrainStorm has fully enrolled a Phase 3 pivotal trial of autologous MSC-NTF cells for the treatment of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). BrainStorm also recently received U.S. FDA acceptance to initiate a Phase 2 open-label multicenter trial in progressive MS and enrollment began in March 2019.

About BrainStorm Cell Therapeutics Inc. BrainStorm Cell Therapeutics Inc. is a leading developer of innovative autologous adult stem cell therapeutics for debilitating neurodegenerative diseases. The Company holds the rights to clinical development and commercialization of the NurOwn technology platform used to produce autologous MSC-NTF cells through an exclusive, worldwide licensing agreement. Autologous MSC-NTF cells have received Orphan Drug status designation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (U.S. FDA) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) in ALS. BrainStorm has fully enrolled a Phase 3 pivotal trial in ALS (NCT03280056), investigating repeat-administration of autologous MSC-NTF cells at six U.S. sites supported by a grant from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM CLIN2-0989). The pivotal study is intended to support a filing for U.S. FDA approval of autologous MSC-NTF cells in ALS. BrainStorm also recently received U.S. FDA clearance to initiate a Phase 2 open-label multicenter trial in progressive Multiple Sclerosis. The Phase 2 study of autologous MSC-NTF cells in patients with progressive MS (NCT03799718) started enrollment in March 2019. For more information, visit the company's website at http://www.brainstorm-cell.com

Safe-Harbor Statement Statements in this announcement other than historical data and information, including statements regarding future clinical trial enrollment and data, constitute "forward-looking statements" and involve risks and uncertainties that could causeBrainStorm Cell Therapeutics Inc.'sactual results to differ materially from those stated or implied by such forward-looking statements. Terms and phrases such as "may", "should", "would", "could", "will", "expect", "likely", "believe", "plan", "estimate", "predict", "potential", and similar terms and phrases are intended to identify these forward-looking statements. The potential risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, BrainStorms need to raise additional capital, BrainStorms ability to continue as a going concern, regulatory approval of BrainStorms NurOwn treatment candidate, the success of BrainStorms product development programs and research, regulatory and personnel issues, development of a global market for our services, the ability to secure and maintain research institutions to conduct our clinical trials, the ability to generate significant revenue, the ability of BrainStorms NurOwn treatment candidate to achieve broad acceptance as a treatment option for ALS or other neurodegenerative diseases, BrainStorms ability to manufacture and commercialize the NurOwn treatment candidate, obtaining patents that provide meaningful protection, competition and market developments, BrainStorms ability to protect our intellectual property from infringement by third parties, heath reform legislation, demand for our services, currency exchange rates and product liability claims and litigation,; and other factors detailed in BrainStorm's annual report on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q available athttp://www.sec.gov. These factors should be considered carefully, and readers should not place undue reliance on BrainStorm's forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are based on the beliefs, expectations and opinions of management as of the date of this press release. We do not assume any obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect actual results or assumptions if circumstances or management's beliefs, expectations or opinions should change, unless otherwise required by law. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements.

CONTACTS

Investor Relations:Preetam Shah, MBA, PhDChief Financial OfficerBrainStorm Cell Therapeutics Inc.Phone: + 1.862.397.1860pshah@brainstorm-cell.com

Media:Sean LeousWestwicke/ICR PRPhone: +1.646.677.1839sean.leous@icrinc.com

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BrainStorm Leases a New Cleanroom Facility at The Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center to Manufacture NurOwn for The European Union - GlobeNewswire

The two institutes are an evolution of the former Gladstone Institute of Virology and Immunology, which was led by Warner Greene, MD, PhD, since its establishment in 1991 and made significant contributions to the fight against HIV/AIDS.

"As the joint Gladstone-UCSF search committee met with eminent scientists from around the globe to find a new director for the Gladstone Institute of Virology and Immunology, Melanie and Alex stood out as exceptional candidates in terms of their research accomplishments and their scientific vision," says Gladstone President Deepak Srivastava, MD, who chaired the search committee. "We realized they represent complementary, rather than alternative, directions for the future of Gladstone."

"They are both remarkable scientists," he adds. "We are honored to have them join our scientific leadership team and we look forward to the discoveries that will emerge from these new institutes."

The Gladstone Institute of Virology will focus on how viruses interface with human host cells to cause disease and how to intervene in that process. Ott's goal is to identify critical pathways that are common to human pathogenic viruses as a way to develop innovative treatments.

"Contrary to the current strategy of combining several drugs to treat one virus, we want to develop one drug against multiple viruses," says Ott, senior investigator at Gladstone and professor in the UCSF Department of Medicine. "As antibiotic resistance becomes an increasingly urgent problem, we will also delve into how we can use viruses as therapeutics, which involves using viruses against themselves or to fight bacteria."

Ott and her colleagues in the institute are concentrating their immediate efforts on the study of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. This work will continue to contribute important insights into the current pandemic through the development of rapid diagnostic, prevention, and treatment strategies, as well as help be better prepared for future coronavirus outbreaks and other emerging infections.

The Gladstone-UCSF Institute of Genomic Immunology will combine cutting-edge genomic technologies with gene editing and synthetic biology to better understand the genetic control of human immune cells and develop novel cell-based immunotherapies. Manipulation of the immune system holds great promise not only to treat cancer, but also for infectious diseases, autoimmune diseases, and maybe even neurologic conditions such as Alzheimer's disease.

"These rapidly advancing fields are starting to converge in ways that are too big for any single lab to take on," says Marson, senior investigator at Gladstone and associate professor in the Departments of Medicine and Microbiology and Immunology at the UCSF School of Medicine. "The impetus to start a new institute was the realization that we need to create an ecosystem to bring together people with different perspectives to think about transformative opportunities for how patients can be treated in the future."

Marson's institute will have lab space at Gladstone, adjacent to UCSF's Mission Bay campus, as well as at the University's Parnassus Heights campus, creating a unified community across the two campuses.

"The importance of pursuing advances in virology and immunology for human health has never been more clear, and we at UCSF applaud Gladstone's visionary leadership in establishing these two new institutes," says UCSF Chancellor Sam Hawgood, MBBS. "Under Melanie and Alex's excellent leadership, these research institutesincluding the first-ever Gladstone-UCSF institutewill complement and enhance UCSF's strengths in immunology and cell therapy, and will build on Gladstone's established expertise in the host-pathogen interface and gene editing technologies. Our long-standing partnership leverages the best of both institutions."

About the Search Committee

The joint Gladstone-UCSF search committee that recruited Melanie Ott and Alexander Marson was chaired byDeepak Srivastava. Other members included Katerina Akassoglou, Warner Greene, Todd McDevitt, Katherine Pollard, and Leor Weinberger from Gladstone, as well as Max Krummel, Susan Lynch, Tiffany Scharschmidt, Anita Sil, and Julie Zikherman from UCSF.

About Melanie Ott

A native of Germany, Melanie Ott, MD, PhD,is the director of the Gladstone Institute of Virology, a senior investigator at Gladstone Institutes, and a professor of medicine at UCSF.

Ott is passionate about using viruses to find fundamental new biology in host cells. She has made important discoveries about how virusesincluding the hepatitis C virus and Zikahijack human cells, and has contributed to efforts to eradicate HIV by gaining insight into viral transcriptional control. Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, she pivoted the focus of her team and spearheaded the effort to establish a dedicated airborne pathogen BSL-3 lab to enable work on live SARS-CoV-2.

Prior to joining Gladstone in 2002, Ott started her own research group at the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg, Germany, working closely with Nobel laureate Harald zur Hausen. She is a trained neurologist with an MD from the University of Frankfurt/Main in Germany. She transitioned to basic virology research during the AIDS crisis, earning a PhD in molecular medicine from the Elmezzi Graduate School in Manhasset, New York.

Ott has received several honors, including the Young Researcher Award at the European Conference on Experimental AIDS Research and the Hellman Award. She is a member of the Association of American Physicians and a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology. She is a recipient of the Chancellor's Award for Public Service from UCSF for her work as the founder and co-chair of the student outreach committee at Gladstone. Ott also received the California Life Sciences Association's Biotechnology Educator Pantheon Award for establishing thePUMAS (Promoting Underrepresented Minorities Advancing in the Sciences) internship programat Gladstone, which seeks to increase diversity in STEM.

About Alexander Marson

Alexander Marson, MD, PhD,is the director of the Gladstone-UCSF Institute of Genomic Immunology, a senior investigator at Gladstone Institutes, and an associate professor in the Departments of Medicine and Microbiology and Immunology at UCSF.

Marson is interested in how DNA controls the behavior of cells in the human immune system. He uses the power of CRISPR technology to genetically engineer cells to fight cancer, autoimmune diseases, and infectious diseases.

He completed his undergraduate studies at Harvard University, and earned an MPhil in biological sciencesfromCambridge. He earned his PhD at Whitehead Institute at MIT, where he worked with mentors Rick Young and Rudolf Jaenisch on transcriptional control of regulatory T cells and embryonic stem cells.

After completing his MD at Harvard Medical School and an internship and residency at the Brigham and Women's Hospital, Marson joined UCSF in 2012 to complete clinical work as an infectious diseases fellow. He started his lab as a Sandler Faculty Fellow, before joining the faculty at UCSF and becoming scientific director of biomedicine at the Innovative Genomics Institute. He is also a Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Investigator and member of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy.

About Gladstone Institutes

To ensure our work does the greatest good, Gladstone Institutes focuses on conditions with profound medical, economic, and social impactunsolved diseases. Gladstone is an independent, nonprofit life science research organization that uses visionary science and technology to overcome disease. It has an academic affiliation with the University of California, San Francisco.

About UCSF

The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is exclusively focused on the health sciences and is dedicated to promoting health worldwide through advanced biomedical research, graduate-level education in the life sciences and health professions, and excellence in patient care.UCSF Health, which serves as UCSF's primary academic medical center,includestop-ranked specialty hospitalsand other clinical programs, and has affiliations throughout the Bay Area. Learn more atucsf.edu, or see ourFact Sheet.

Sources

Gladstone Institutes: Megan McDevitt | [emailprotected] | 415.734.2019

UCSF: Pete Farley |[emailprotected] | 415.502.4608

SOURCE Gladstone Institutes

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Two New Research Institutes in the Bay Area - PRNewswire

Things have certainly changed this year for humans and other animals. Some of those changes will stick and be good for us all; others wont.

The live-animal markets in China, widely thought to be the source of the novel coronavirus, closed temporarily but are now reopening and, like those in the rest of Asia and even Europe and the U.S., are cause for alarm because they are breeding grounds for zoonotic diseases that can have fatal consequences for our own species.

On the good-news front, if you care about animals, those subjected to the annual Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo were granted a reprieve when it was canceled; horses got a break when racetracks closed (coincidentally just after a scandal erupted and trainers and owners were indicted on a charge of felony doping); Spain banned bullfights; and even that drunken melee known as the Running of the Bulls is likely not to take place this year. Lions have come out to lie on the now-deserted, usually tourist-infested Kenyan park roads; elk herds have been playing in the surf along the Oregon coast; and deer have returned to graze on lawns that were once their ancestral homes.

Some university laboratories decided that their work was no longer essential and adopted out or euthanized animals ordinarily used in experiments. Those of us who work to modernize research suggested that new shipments of animals should not replace them when the pandemic is over, as we now have human organs-on-a-chip and so many other technological advances that sticking an electrode into a dogs brain or a syringe full of chemicals down a rats throat is simply crude and cruel. After all, at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles, researchers use human pluripotent stem cells, an in vitro technique, to test the effects of chemicals found in household items like cookware and paint. Even high school dissection, for which 10 million live frogs, cats, pigs, turtles and others are killed every year nationwide, is being replaced with a simulated frog and computer software that replicates dissection without harming any living being.

People hoarded, but not just toilet paper. Since dairy milk requires refrigeration but almond, soy, rice, oat, and nut milks do not, shoppers began stocking up on nondairy milk, and as a result, cows and their beloved calves, who are torn away shortly after birth, may not suffer as much in the dairy industry. Some percentage of these consumers will no doubt stick with their newfound, healthier dairy alternative. They may also discover that companies like Miyokos Creamery, Kite Hill and Daiya make extraordinarily delicious plant-based cheeses, and in the world of ice cream, so many nondairy varieties now exist that you could fill a freezer with them and not have enough room for the rest.

Although some slaughterhouses have reopened, their temporary closures shed light on the abysmal working conditions inside them. Meanwhile, meat taste-alike products, such as Beyond Burgers, flew off the shelves, and consumers returned to staples like pasta with tomato sauce, rice and beans, baked potatoes, and vegetable soups and stews. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and others not only picketed the slaughter facilities with signs reading, Stay Closed Forever. Meat Kills, but also offered free vegan starter kits, recipes and tips for anyone who decided to use their lockdown time to try a vegan diet. In Seattle, the food technology startup Rebellyous recently took over a building that had previously housed a meat-processing facility and plans to use it to set up a prototype of a plant-based poultry factory.

Last year, global enforcement agencies conducted the most wide-ranging wildlife crime sting ever. This year, with reports damning the capture and farming of crocodiles and alligators for the fashion business and the threat of disease transmission from exotic species to our own, the trade will likely take a lasting hit. Clothing is rapidly undergoing change. Instead of using skinned animals, major designers have switched to synthetic and natural, sustainable fabrics. Some, like Cathryn Wills of Sans Beast and Matt & Nat have sworn off all types of leather. Car manufacturers like BMW, Lexus and Tesla now offer vegan leather and fabric interiors.

New York City is one of two states that banned foie gras last year, and in the last month, legislation has also been introduced there seeking to ban wet markets, where chickens, rabbits, turtles, ducks and other animals are caged and butchered, with their waste and blood covering the floors on which people tread as they make their way to their homes, offices and schools. May it pass for all our sakes.

In 2019, we took a step forward to help animals and our planet in many areas. If we reflect upon the opportunities we have to temper our harmful consumer habits, 2020 will see us taking more. So much depends on our acceptance of personal responsibility: We can make kind choices in everything we eat, wear, buy and do to entertain ourselves. We can demonstrate that we care about ending needless violence, show respect and consideration for all and live as if life truly counts by rejecting speciesism and affording all animals the care and compassion they deserve.

Ingrid Newkirk is the founder and president of PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. She is the author of "Animalkind: Remarkable Discoveries about Animals and Revolutionary New Ways to Show Them Compassion," and other acclaimed books.

Gene Stone is the bestselling author, co-author or ghost writer of more than 45 books on a wide variety of subjects, including "Animalkind," "Forks Over Knives," and "How Not to Die, Living the Farm Sanctuary Life."

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A chance to change our harmful habits of eating and abusing animals - Seattle Times

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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced on Tuesday that it has approved dapagliflozin, also known under the brand name Farxiga, for the treatment of heart failure in adults with reduced ejection fraction. The drug can potentially reduce the risk of cardiovascular death and hospitalization for heart failure.

AstraZenecas Farxiga is now the first in its drug class of sodium-glucose co-transporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors to be approved to treat adults with the New York Heart Associations functional class II-IV heart failure with reduced ejection fraction. AstraZeneca was granted with the approval of Farxiga related to heart failure by the FDA.

In a clinical trial, Farxiga appeared to improve survival and reduce the need for hospitalization in adults with heart failure and reduced ejection fraction.

To determine the efficacy of the drug, researchers looked at the number of instances of cardiovascular death, hospitalization for heart failure and urgent heart failure visits. Some trial participants were given a once-daily dose of 10mg of Farxiga, while others were given a placebo. After approximately 18 months, those who were given Farxiga had fewer cardiovascular deaths, hospitalizations for heart failure and urgent heart failure visits compared to their counterparts.

Heart failure is a serious health condition that contributes to one in eight deaths in the U.S. and impacts nearly 6.5 million Americans, said Norman Stockbridge, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Division of Cardiology and Nephrology in the FDAs Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. This approval provides patients with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction an additional treatment option that can improve survival and reduce the need for hospitalization.

Farxiga can cause side effects including dehydration, urinary tract infections and genetical yeast infections. It can also potentially result in serious cases of necrotizing fasciitis of the perineum in people with diabetes and low blood sugar when combined with insulin.

On Tuesday, BioCardia, Inc. also announced positive preclinical data supporting its new drug application for anti-inflammatory cell therapy for heart failure. BioCardias allogenic neurokinin 1 receptor positive mesenchymal stem cell (NK1R+ MSC) therapy appeared to improve heart function in a study. NK1R+ MSC is being marketed under the name CardiALLO.

Researchers looked at 26 animals treated with both low dose and high dose CardiALLO in their study. Echocardiographic measures of cardiac ejection fraction, fractional shortening and cardiac outflow all notably improved in the animals.

In light of these positive data on our allogenic NK1R+ MSC therapy, we expect to meet our internal timeline to complete our submission to the FDA for our first indication for CardiALLO, and potentially receive IND acceptance by the end of the second quarter, said BioCardia Chief Scientific Officer Ian McNiece, PhD. The MSCs that were studied are subtypes of MSC that we have delivered previously in our co-sponsored trials, which we believe have enhanced potency over MSC generated from unselected bone marrow cells. We look forward to seeing additional data from this animal study that are currently being analyzed, including histology and pathology of the heart and lungs.

BioCardia also intends to submit an IND for the use of NK1R+ MSC delivered via intravenous infusion for the treatment of Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome caused by COVID-19.

Approximately 6.5 million adults in the U.S. are living with heart failure, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Protection. In 2017, it was a contributing cause of death in one out of eight people.

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FDA Approves AstraZeneca's Farxiga for Heart Failure in Adults with Reduced Ejection Fraction - BioSpace

People with cancer who contract the new coronavirus appear to have a greater risk for severe COVID-19 illness and death, but this may depend on their cancer stage and the type of treatment they are receiving, according to recent research. In fact, those with early-stage cancer may fare as well as people who have not had cancer.

Researchers from some of the earliest and hardest hit epicenters of the COVID-19 pandemic described outcomes among cancer patients with the coronavirus (officially known as SARS-CoV-2) during a special session the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) virtual annual meeting last week. Soon after the conference, another group of researchers published an analysis of mortality among cancer patients in New York City.

Early reports from China, where the pandemic originated in late December, showed that older people, those with compromised immune systems and those with underlying health conditions are more susceptible to severe COVID-19. One study saw a death rate of 6% for people with cancermore than twice as high as the overall estimated COVID-19 mortality rate in China, but lower than the rates seen in people with diabetes (7%) or cardiovascular disease (11%).

Chemotherapy medications and some targeted therapies for cancer can cause neutropenia, a temporary depletion of immune system white blood cells that fight infection. People who receive bone marrow stem cell transplants or CAR-T therapy or for blood cancers typically receive strong chemotherapy to kill off existing blood cells and make room for the new ones. Conversely, immunotherapies such as checkpoint inhibitors and CAR-T therapy unleash natural or engineered T cells to fight cancer, which in some cases can trigger an excessive immune response that leads to harmful inflammation.

Two reports at the AACR meeting provided updates from China. Li Zhang, MD, PhD, of Tongji Medical College described outcomes among 28 cancer patients with COVID-19 in Wuhan, the initial epicenter of the pandemic.

Seven had lung cancer and the remainder had 13 other cancer types. Just over a third had Stage IV, or metastatic, cancer. Nearly 30% acquired the coronavirus at medical facilities. About half had severe disease, 10 patients required mechanical ventilators and eight diedmostly from acute respiratory distress syndromegiving a mortality rate of 29%.

Although three quarters had ever undergone surgery, radiation or chemotherapy, a majority had not received treatment recently. Only one person received radiation, three received chemotherapy, two received targeted therapy and one received immunotherapy within two weeks prior to their COVID-19 diagnosis. Recent cancer treatment was associated with a fourfold increased risk of severe outcomes. However, the single patient treated with a checkpoint inhibitor (for liver cancer) had mild COVID-19 and a short hospital stay.

Similarly, as part of his discussion of immunotherapy for cancer in the COVID-19 era, Paolo Ascierto, MD, of the National Tumor Institute in Naples, noted that just two out of 400 patients on immunotherapy at his institute tested positive for the coronavirus, they were asymptomatic and they recovered quickly, leading him to speculate that immunotherapy might somehow be protective against COVID-19.

Hongbing Cai, MD, of Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, presented data on 105 cancer patients and 536 age-matched people without cancer at 14 hospitals in Hubei province who developed COVID-19. Results were also published in Cancer Discovery. Twenty-two had lung cancer, 13 had gastrointestinal cancers, 11 each had breast cancer and thyroid cancer, nine had blood cancers such as leukemia or lymphomawhich affect white blood cells that carry out immune responsesand six each had cervical and esophageal cancer.

In general, patients with cancer deteriorated more rapidly than those without cancer, Cais team reported. Cancer patients with COVID-19 were nearly three times more likely to have severe or critical illness (34%), be admitted to an intensive care unit ICU (19%) or be put on a ventilator (10%). Whats more, people with cancer were about twice as likely to die as COVID-19 patients without cancer (11% versus 5%, respectively).

People with blood cancers or lung cancer, as well as those with metastatic cancer, had a higher risk of severe events. Two thirds of the blood cancer patients and half of the lung cancer patients had such events. Among the lung cancer patients, 18% were put on ventilators and 18% died. In contrast, no one with breast, thyroid or cervical cancer required ventilators or died.

In particular, those with blood cancersmore than half of whom had severe immune suppressionhad about a 10-fold higher risk of severe events or death. Two thirds had severe symptoms, 22% were put on ventilators and 33% died. These patients all had a rapidly deteriorated clinical course once infected with COVID-19, the researchers wrote.

People with metastatic cancer had about a six-fold higher risk of severe events or death. But people whose cancer had not yet spread were not significantly more likely to have severe events or die than COVID-19 patients without cancer. People currently on cancer treatment and those with a history of cancer who had completed treatment were both at higher risk.

People who underwent surgery within the previous 40 days had higher rates of severe events, ICU admission, ventilator use and death, but this was not the case for those who received only radiation. In this study, unlike Zhangs and Asciertos, people treated with immunotherapy did not fare so well. Four of the six patients who recently received checkpoint inhibitors had critical symptoms and two died.

Based on our analysis, COVID-19 patients with cancer tend to have more severe outcomes when compared to the non-cancer population, the researchers wrote. Although COVID-19 is reported to have a relatively low death rate of 2% to 3% in the general population, patients with cancer and COVID-19 not only have a nearly three-fold increase in the death rate than that of COVID-19 patients without cancer, but also tend to have much higher severity of their illness.

In a related study, Marina Chiara Garassino, MD, of Fondazione IRCCS National Tumor Institute in Milan, presented the first data from the international TERAVOLT registry, which is collecting data about COVID-19 among people with lung cancer and other thoracic malignancies. She noted that TERAVOLT was registering around 70 new cases per week from around the world per week.

This population may be especially vulnerable to COVID-19 due to older age, lung damage, smoking and underlying health conditions, Garassino said. Whats more, the symptoms of COVID-19 overlap with lung cancer, making diagnosis very challenging.

Garassino described results from the first 200 cancer patients with COVID-19 in more than 20 countries. Non-small-cell lung cancer was the most common type, and nearly three quarters had metastatic disease. About 20% received only targeted therapy, 33% received chemotherapy alone and 23% received immunotherapy alone.

A majority (76%) were hospitalized, but most were not offered intensive care for COVID-19; just 9% were admitted to an ICU and 3% were put on ventilators. More than a third (35%) died, mostly due to COVID-19 rather than cancer. Specific types of cancer treatment were not significantly associated with an increased risk of death.

But not all studies have seen worse COVID-19 outcomes among people with cancer. Fabrice Barlesi, MD, PhD, and colleagues looked at 137 COVID-19 patients with cancer at Gustave Roussy, a cancer center near Paris. They had a variety of cancer types, with blood cancers and breast cancer being most common. Nearly 60% had active advanced disease while 40% were in remission or being treated with potentially curative therapy.

Within this group, 25% had worsening COVID-19 after admission, 11% were admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) and 15% died. Again, people with blood cancers were more likely to have worse outcomes. Treatment with chemotherapy within the past three monthsbut not targeted therapy or immunotherapydoubled the likelihood of worsening disease. But this only applied to people with active or metastatic cancer, not those who had localized disease or were in remission.

The 15% death rate among people with cancer at Gustave Roussy was lower than the 18% rate for all COVID-19 patients in Paris and in France, Barlesi said. His team concluded that both incidence and outcomes of COVID-19 among cancer patients seem to be comparable to the population as a whole. However, people with blood cancers, those treated with chemotherapy and frail patients are at greater risk.

Discussing how to manage cancer patients during the COVID-19 pandemic, Cai recommended self-protective isolation, strict infection control in hospitals and shifting some medical services online.

With regard to cancer treatment, she said, clinicians need to develop individualized plans based on a patients tumor type and stage of disease. She added that postponing surgery, if appropriate, should be considered in areas with current outbreaks. Radiation therapy, she said, could go ahead according to existing treatment plans with intensive protection and surveillance. Whether people with early-stage cancer need to postpone their treatment remains an unanswered question, she said.

Click hereto read the abstracts from the AACR COVID-19 and cancer session.Learn about What People With Cancer Need to Know About the New Coronavirus.

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Cancer Patients With COVID-19 May Have Higher Risk of Severe Illness and Death - Cancer Health Treatment News

3D cell culture market is estimated to be over US$ 600.0 Bn in 2017. It is anticipated to grow at a CAGR of 19.8% from 2019 to 2030.

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New York, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 05/08/2020 -- 3D cell culture is an artificial environment created for the growth of biological cells. The biological cells are made to interact with the surrounding or grow in all the three dimensions. This cell culture is completely different from the 2d cell culture like a Petri dish. In a 3d cell culture, the cells grow in all the directions, similar to in vivo. This technique is normally performed in bioreactors, small capsules that help in cell growth into 3d cell colonies or spheroids. 3d cell culture is extensively used in research from several decades. Depending on their applications and characteristics, numerous types of cell cultures are available today. Amongst all, 3d cell culture is broadly used due to its convenient and novel features in comparison to other alternative techniques.

The increasing prevalence of corona virus, worldwide is significantly impacting the healthcare domain. This also includes various medical domains, laboratory services, clinical trials, and delivery speed of required services to patients. The pandemic has boosted the science of viruses on the front news, but the world is more eager to know the advancements made by this domain for the big fight against COVID-19. With the help of 3d cell culture and other modernized technologies, researchers are expected to bring advancements in viral and cellular science for better treatment to patients.

Major Key Players of the 3D Cell Culture Market are:Corning, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Merck & Co., Lonza, 3D Biotek, InSphero, REPROCELL USA, Nano3D Biosciences, SYNTHECON, INCORPORATED and QGel SA, Lausanne, Switzerland.

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Increasing R&D investments & funding from both private and public sector in the field of cell-based research has presented a bright prospect for the growth of 3D cell culture market. Introduction of innovative new techniques has further led to wide scale application of such techniques and application of 3D cell culture FOR artificially growing biological entities.

Rising prevalence and incidences of several diseases worldwide has triggered the need for advanced R&D scenario across all sectors of biotechnology, life sciences, pharmaceuticals and research establishments. Both public and private sectors are now focusing on new innovative techniques, ideas to obtain latest breakthroughs in the field of life sciences. According to studies, it was estimated that the total spending on R&D by mid-market biotechnology companies, witnessed an increment of approximately 18% between 2015 and 2016. Growing need to address several forms of ailments has been crucial in dictating the funding and R&D spending by governmental establishments as well as major market players and other research institutes. Increasing R&D investments and spending is anticipated to positively contribute to the growth of the global 3D cell culture market.

Major Applications of 3D Cell Culture Market covered are:Drug Discovery & ToxicologyCancer & Stem Cell ResearchTissue Engineering & Regenerative Medicine

Research objectives:-

To study and analyze the global 3D Cell Culture consumption (value & volume) by key regions/countries, product type and application, history data. To understand the structure of the 3D Cell Culture market by identifying its various sub-segments. Focuses on the key global 3D Cell Culture manufacturers, to define, describe and analyze the sales volume, value, market share, market competitive landscape, SWOT analysis, and development plans in the next few years. To analyze the 3D Cell Culture with respect to individual growth trends, future prospects, and their contribution to the total market. To share detailed information about the key factors influencing the growth of the market (growth potential, opportunities, drivers, industry-specific challenges and risks).

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Table of Content

1 Report Overview1.1 Study Scope1.2 Key Market Segments1.3 Players Covered1.4 Market Analysis by Type1.5 Market by Application1.6 Study Objectives1.7 Years Considered

2 Global Growth Trends2.1 3D Cell Culture Market Size2.2 3D Cell Culture Growth Trends by Regions2.3 Industry Trends

3 Market Share by Key Players3.1 3D Cell Culture Market Size by Manufacturers3.2 3D Cell Culture Key Players Head office and Area Served3.3 Key Players 3D Cell Culture Product/Solution/Service3.4 Date of Enter into 3D Cell Culture Market3.5 Mergers & Acquisitions, Expansion Plans

4 Breakdown Data by Product4.1 Global 3D Cell Culture Sales by Product4.2 Global 3D Cell Culture Revenue by Product4.3 3D Cell Culture Price by Product

5 Breakdown Data by End User5.1 Overview5.2 Global 3D Cell Culture Breakdown Data by End User

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In the end, 3D Cell Culture industry report specifics the major regions, market scenarios with the product price, volume, supply, revenue, production, and market growth rate, demand, forecast and so on. This report also presents SWOT analysis, investment feasibility analysis, and investment return analysis.

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COVID-19 Impact on 3D Cell Culture Market to Witness Huge Growth from 2019-2030 and Key Players - Corning, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Merck & Co -...

Doctors are hoping stem cell therapy could be a weapon in the fight against coronavirus. On Friday, regenerative medicine company Mesoblast announced a 300-person trial to determine whether stem cell treatments will work in COVID-19 patients suffering from severe lung inflammation.

One hospital in New York tried it as an experiment with 12 patients, 10 of whom were able to come off of ventilators.

"What we saw in the very first patient was that within four hours of getting the cells, a lot of her parameters started to get better," Dr. Karen Osman, who led the team at Mount Sinai, told CBS News' Adriana Diaz.

The doctor said she was encouraged by the results, though she was hesitant to link the stem cell procedure to her patients' recovery.

"We don't know" if the 10 people removed from ventilators would not have gotten had they not gotten the stem cells, she said. "And we would never dare to claim that it was related to the cells."

She explained that only a "randomized controlled trial" would be the only way "to make a true comparison."

Luis Naranjo, a 60-year-old COVID-19 survivor, was one of Mount Sinai's stem cell trial success stories. He told Diaz in Spanish that he was feeling "much better."

Naranjo's daughter, Paola, brought him to the emergency room, fearful she would not see her father again. Like so many families struck by the coronavirus, she was not allowed inside with him.

"I forgot to tell him that I love him," she said. "All I said was go inside, I hope you feel better."

During his hospital stay, Naranjo was unconscious and on a ventilator for 14 days.

Doctors proposed giving him stem cells from bone marrow in hopes it would suppress the severe lung inflammation caused by the virus.

Now, Naranjo credits the doctors who treated him for his survival. Though income from his family's jewelry business has been cut off and they found themselves falling behind on rent, Naranjo said he is focused primarily on his recovery and regaining the 25 pounds he lost at the hospital.

Although stem cell treatment, usually reserved for other diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, might end up being another step toward helping coronavirus patients recover, Dr. Osman was quick to say it would not be a "miracle treatment."

"The miracle treatment will be a vaccine," she said.

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Coronavirus Doctors experiment with stem cell therapy on COVID-19 patients CBS News 9:39 AM - KTVQ Billings News

As people around the world try to envision recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, much attention has been paid to antibody testing as a way to identify people who have developed immunity to the virus.

Perhaps those with antibodies could be given immunity passports, allowing health care workers to return to the front lines, and a subset of the population to reopen the economy.

Even as scientists at UC San Francisco and across the world rush to develop and validate antibody tests for the novel coronavirus, they are cautious about how the tests should be used. Too much is still unknown about immunity to COVID-19 and the performance of the tests, they say.

We spoke to three UCSF experts pathologist Alan Wu, PhD; infectious disease specialist Chaz Langelier, MD, PhD; and pathologist Jonathan Esensten, MD, PhD about how antibody testing works, who it can be most useful for and why we should be cautious.

Antibodies are Y-shaped proteins that bind to specific foreign substances in our bodies, such as SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. They fight infection by blocking parts of the virus needed to infect a cell or by marking them for destruction by the immune system.

Antibodies are produced by immune cells known as B cells. The incredible range of antibodies we can produce stem from the incredible range of B cells we have. When we are infected with a virus, a small set of B cells recognizes the virus and, over a couple of weeks, with the help of other immune cells known as T cells, they learn to produce stronger and stronger antibodies to the virus. These B cells mature and multiply into factories for antibody production known as plasma cells.

Experts generally believe that if you develop antibodies to the novel coronavirus, then you have at least temporary immunity from reinfection, although they stress that this is still unproven and that the parameters of that immunity are still unknown.

Everybody wants to be believe that if I have antibodies, Im immune, said Wu. Well, we cant be certain of that. The antibody test for this virus hasnt been around long enough to show that nobody can get infected again if they have antibodies.

Both optimism and caution stem from what we know about other coronaviruses. Studies of the seasonal coronaviruses that cause the common cold have shown that people are protected from reinfection by the same strain for at least a year before immunity wanes. For the SARS and MERS coronaviruses, antibodies appear to persist for several years, but no studies have intentionally attempted to re-infect people, since these are deadly diseases.

For the novel coronavirus, known as SARS-CoV-2, a study in two rhesus macaques that had recovered from the virus found that they could not be reinfected a few weeks later.

So that experiment tells us that, at least in a non-human primate model, antibody mediated responses likely protect them from recurrent infection, said Langelier. What we don't know is whether that extends completely to humans or not. And we don't know how long that protection lasts.

In South Korea, more than a hundred patients have tested positive again after being discharged from the hospital, but its not clear that these represent re-infection, or are the result of faulty testing.

Langelier also noted that the strength of the immune response can vary from person to person. A recent, not yet peer-reviewed study of 175 recovered COVID-19 patients found that only 70 percent developed high antibody titers, meaning their blood contained high concentrations of antibodies to the virus, whereas 25 percent had lower titers, and 5 percent had no detectable antibodies.

Currently, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has authorized only four antibody tests for COVID-19, but it has also loosened restrictions to allow companies to sell antibody tests that have not been scientifically reviewed by the FDA, as long as the companies validate their own tests and notify the FDA. More than 90 companies now have tests on the market, but its not clear how well they work and how they compare to each other.

Antibody tests, also known as serological tests, are nothing new and are commonly used to confirm vaccinations or to monitor infections like HIV. Though methods vary, an antibody test essentially uses an antigen, which mimics a part of the virus, as bait, and has a signal that registers whether antibodies have taken the bait.

Some tests can be done at home with a finger-prick of blood while others require laboratory machines that can run hundreds of samples per hour. Some measure a type of antibody known as IgG, others measure additional types such as IgM and IgA.

At UCSF, several teams are working with companies to validate new SARS-CoV-2 antibody tests by providing blood samples from COVID-19 patients collected throughout the course of their illness. The validation process is essential to help ensure that the tests are sensitive, meaning they identify all the true positives, and specific, meaning they identify all the true negatives. One concern is that some tests may also detect antibodies for other coronaviruses and give a false positive and false assurance - to someone who does not actually have antibodies for SARS-CoV-2.

With so much still unknown about immunity to COVID-19 and a spate of antibody tests that have not been rigorously validated, experts worry that widespread antibody screening may give those who test positive a false sense of security.

I think that to do mass screening is premature, said Wu. There needs to be some plan to determine what is the goal and objective of doing such a thing.

One goal may be to allow health care workers who have antibodies to return to work in high-risk situations. Certainly understanding whether health care workers have been exposed and may be immune is one of the hopes for antibody testing, said Langelier. Unfortunately, we dont yet know how test positivity correlates with immunity, and there is likely assay to assay variability.

Experts caution that antibody testing is not meant to diagnose active infections of COVID-19 because antibodies can take many days to develop. A recent study in Nature of patients with mild COVID-10 found that only half developed antibodies by day seven after onset of symptoms, with all patients developing antibodies by day 14.

I think its important to know that early during infection, a negative antibody test does not mean someone is uninfected and that it takes time to develop an antibody response, said Langelier.

Of course, the advantage of antibody testing is its ability to pick up tell-tale signs of infection long after symptoms have faded and even if the person never showed symptoms. In contrast, diagnostic tests, such as a PCR test, detect viral RNA and work only in the narrow window of time about two weeks when the virus is in the body.

We know that a sizable fraction of people have asymptomatic infections or very mild infections and never get tested. So theres no way to know they were infected without antibody testing, said Langelier. Antibody testing could help us see the true prevalence of COVID-19, calculate more accurate mortality rates, and better model the future spread of the disease by showing how many people are still vulnerable to infection.

UCSF is already embarking on seroprevalence studies in certain communities to better understand the spread of COVID-19. Researchers aim to test as many as possible of the 2,000 residents of Bolinas, Calif, over a four-day period and then the 5,700 residents in the Mission District of San Francisco over another four-day period. Residents can voluntarily receive antibody testing as well as diagnostic testing for active COVID-19 infection.

Its likely that the true prevalence of COVID-19 is many times higher than currently reported through diagnostic testing, but most experts agree that we are far from having enough immunity in the population to quell transmission known as herd immunity.

Even if its 5 percent immunity, which I think is high, the disease will still be able to spread widely among the 95 percent. We will be nowhere close to herd immunity at that point, said Esensten.

Moreover, a positive antibody test doesnt guarantee immunity. We have not proven that the antibodies that are being produced are in fact neutralizing antibodies, said Wu. Its possible, for example, that an antibody may bind to a part of the virus that the virus doesnt need to infect our cells. In order to be neutralizing, an antibody must prevent the virus from infecting our cells.

Whether we produce neutralizing antibodies will also determine whether we can take antibodies from someone who has recovered from COVID-19 and use them to help someone still fighting the infection. Known as convalescent plasma therapy, this technique has been used since the 19th century to treat infectious diseases including measles, influenza and Ebola. Experimental trials of convalescent plasma therapy for COVID-19 have been done in China, with some anecdotal benefit, and are underway in New York City.

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With no proven treatments for COVID-19 and a vaccine still at least a year away, researchers see convalescent plasma as one more avenue of hope. Its very, very old and theoretically useful, but its not a very well-tested approach, said Esensten. I would call convalescent plasma a treatment of desperation, but thats where we are right now.

Esensten is currently recruiting convalescent plasma donors for clinical trials planned at Zuckerberg San Francisco General and UCSF. Potential donors include adults who have recovered from COVID-19 and are at least 14 days from their last symptoms. Volunteers first undergo an antibody test to check for antibodies and a nasal swab to make sure they are no longer infectious. The donation process takes place at a Vitalant blood center and is similar to giving blood except a machine will extract the plasma, the straw-colored component of blood that contains the antibodies, and return the rest of the blood to the donor. Frozen plasma can be stored for up to a year.

Esensten suspects that convalescent plasma may be most effective when given early on in an infection, but this, too, is still untested.

We really need donors to step forward, said Esensten. Ideally, they have been diagnosed with a COVID-19 lab test, but even if they have not been diagnosed but have a really good story for why they think they had COVID-19, were willing to speak with them.

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The Promise and Uncertainties of Antibody Testing for Coronavirus - UCSF News Services

It started with a jails investigator in an office three miles from Rikers Island. Then, a correction officer at a security checkpoint near the entrance to the jail complex got it. Hours later, it was an inmate in a crowded housing unit.

Within days, the investigator had died and three more correction officers and two other staff members had tested positive for the coronavirus, confirming fears that the highly contagious disease had arrived in the nations second-largest jail system, endangering 5,300 inmates and twice as many guards.On Thursday, the jail systems chief physician, Ross MacDonald, took to Twitter with a warning: A storm is coming.

He was part of a growing chorus of public defenders and officials in New York City, led by Mayor Bill de Blasio, who have been pushing for the state courts and the citys district attorneys to release from city jails people who are especially vulnerable to the virus.

The alternative, they have said, may be a public health catastrophe.

Similar scenarios are playing out in jails and prisons throughout the state and across the country as correction staff members and inmates have tested positive for the virus. Two correction officers in upstate New York prisons, one correction officer in Westchester and an inmate in a Nassau County jail have been found to have the disease, as have two inmates in a federal prison in California.

Mayor de Blasio said his administration was working with prosecutors to free elderly and infirm inmates. On Friday, the district attorneys in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx said they had consented to the release of dozens of inmates, though the final decision will be up to the courts.

These are unprecedented times, the Queens district attorney, Melinda Katz, said. We are doing this in a truncated period of time.

Officials in major cities in California, Florida and Pennsylvania had already taken similar steps to slow the spread of the virus.

But public defenders and New York City officials said the process of setting people free had been hampered by uncertainties over who could authorize their release, concerns over public safety and worries about where to send people once they were out.

For everyones safety, this decision cannot be rushed, Freddi Goldstein, Mr. de Blasios spokeswoman, said on Thursday. We need to determine both public health risk and public safety risk.

City officials would like to release several hundred people sent to Rikers Island for minor parole violations, near the end of their sentences or detained on low bail.

Public defenders and advocates for inmates have called for sending home all inmates with pre-existing medical conditions, those over 50 and anyone jailed for a parole violation.

It is a ticking time bomb, said Justine Olderman, executive director of the Bronx Defenders. Were looking for bold action and leadership.

On Saturday, the Board of Correction, the city agency that serves as a watchdog over the jails, said that the number of confirmed coronavirus cases at Rikers had jumped from eight to 38 21 detainees, 12 jail employees and five correctional health workers.

Board officials said there were also 58 inmates being monitored in the contagious disease unit up from 27 people on Tuesday.

A person familiar with the matter said a previously closed jails facility had been reopened to accommodate the growing number of inmates being placed into quarantine.

Dr. Robert Cohen, a member of the Board of Correction, said, The most important thing we can do right now is discharge all of the people who are old and have serious medical issues those people are likely to die from a coronavirus infection.

Seventeen percent of the citys jail population is over 50, and a majority of that group has an underlying health condition, according to data provided by the citys Department of Correction.

City corrections officials said they had begun screening all personnel entering the jail for fevers and doing medical checks of inmates going to and from court. Visiting inmates has been suspended. Arts and education programs have been cut back.

Detainees have been instructed to sleep head-to-toe, to maintain three feet of distance between them, and to not sit on each others beds.

Even so, said Dr. Rachael Bedard, a geriatrician who works at the jail, it has been and most likely will be difficult to stem the spread of the virus in a place where people live in cramped and often unsanitary conditions.

The only meaningful public health intervention here is to depopulate the jails dramatically, she said.

Rikers has an 88-bed contagious disease unit with air-controlled cells; the infected inmate is housed there now. But the unit does not have ventilators, so inmates who become severely ill will be sent to Bellevue Hospital Center.

Corrections officials said that they had stepped up cleaning and that inmates and staff members were given sanitation wipes and general disinfectant. Guards have also been supplied with gloves and respiratory masks.

But inmates, union officials and Rikers staff members say conditions in the jail complex remain unsanitary.

Inmates have complained to their lawyers in recent days that they did not have soap or cleaning products. One told his lawyer in a letter that his housing unit had not been cleaned in several days.

He said when he arrived at the jail, he was held in a pen with dozens of others, some of whom were coughing, and described the area as extremely dirty, according to the Legal Aid Society, the citys largest public defender group.

Rayshad Jackson, who was released from Rikers Island on Friday, said jail officials had not informed inmates about the viral outbreak wreaking havoc globally.

He learned about the virus three days ago from news reports. The news caused a small riot in the jail, he said.

No one knew what this was, said Mr. Jackson, who had been detained on a parole violation and has chronic asthma and sleep apnea.

One staff member, who spoke anonymously for fear of retribution from the city, said that many correction officers did not have access to hand sanitizer, masks or gloves. Many of the facilities, the staff member said, were poorly ventilated and, despite the departments public statements, some spaces remained uncleaned for days.

Elias Husamudeen, the president of the Correction Officers Benevolent Association, said his 11,000 officers had been given only 3,000 masks.

Mr. Husamudeen said the department needed to segregate new inmates coming into the jail and provide more supplies. If not, he said, the crisis will grow worse with each passing day.

State prisons face a similar problem. So far two correction officers, including one at the Sing Sing Correctional Facility and another at the Shawangunk Correctional Facility, and a civilian employee in Albany have tested positive for the virus, state prison officials said.

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and state prison officials have declined to share details about their plans for addressing an outbreak, citing security concerns.

Civilian employees in the prison system were ordered to remain home for two weeks to limit the number of people entering the prisons, and visits by friends and family have been suspended.

Foster Thompson, an inmate serving time for murder at Sing Sing, said in a telephone interview this week that an inmate in a nearby cell was sneezing, hacking and complaining loudly of body aches. The next day, he said, about 40 inmates in his housing unit went to a clinic for medical attention, but were turned away.

Mr. Thompson said prison officials had recently canceled social and educational programs to keep inmates apart. But crowds are everywhere, he said.

With little else to do, hundreds of prisoners have been gathering in the yard. Eighty men at a time pack into the bathhouse showers, and with visits suspended, there are long lines for the phones.

Theres no way be away from people, Mr. Thompson said. Everybodys basically right on top of each other.

William K. Rashbaum and Jesse McKinley contributed reporting.

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A Storm Is Coming: Fears of an Inmate Epidemic as the Virus Spreads in the Jails - The New York Times