April , 2021 | The Health

A new report on data risk in healthcare , pharmaceuticals and biotech has found that many organisations have serious security gaps exposing them to risks .

The report , by data security and analytics firm Varonis , includes data from global healthcare organisations in the UK , US , France and Germany , compiled using data analysis of three billion files across 57 organisations .

It revealed that overexposed data and an increased number of highly sophisticated cyberattacks have made healthcare one of the most at-risk sectors in 2021 .

It also highlights the importance of how organisations manage the security gaps created by remote working and cloud migration . When companies have obvious gaps like passwords that never expire and folders containing sensitive data open to every employee , their risks increase .

Key findings from the report include :

• Two-thirds of healthcare organisations have over 500 passwords that never expire

• On average , 79 per cent of all data is stale

• Nearly 20 per cent of files are

Singapore-based healthtech start up Mesh Bio has raised US $ 1.8 million ( SG $ 2.4 million ) in seed funding , led by deep tech investors Elev8 . vc and Enterprise Singapore ’ s investment arm Seeds Capital , along with Citrine Capital and Tael Partners .

The funds will be used to accelerate the rollout of Mesh Bio ’ s solution , DARA ® - a predictive analytics and clinical workflow automation solution for healthcare providers - in Southeast Asia and Hong Kong . The funding will also support clinical partnerships and collaborations .

Mesh Bio was founded in 2018 by healthcare and technology veterans - Andrew Wu , formerly Chief Operating Officer ( COO ) of Clearbridge Biomedics ( now known as Biolidics ), Arsen Batagov , former A * Star bioinformatics scientist and Dr Melvin Heng , physician and hospital administrator .

Andrew Wu , Mesh Bio Co-founder and CEO said , “ Chronic diseases are increasing in Asia , making patient management increasingly complex and challenging . For

open to every employee in healthcare organisations ( on average )

• 31,000 sensitive files ( HIpaa + financial + proprietary research ) are open to everyone

• Over 50 per cent of organisations have more than 1,000 sensitive files open to every employee Smaller organisations had a concerning amount of exposed data , including sensitive files , intellectual property and patient records . On their first day , new employees at small companies have instant access to over 11,000 exposed files , and nearly half of these contain sensitive data .

instance , diabetes prevalence in Malaysia is the highest in Southeast Asia at 16.8 per cent . In Singapore it is 14.2 per cent and in Thailand , 8.3 per cent .

The situation is compounded by the lack of doctors , especially specialists , forcing general practitioners - lacking specialist training in endocrinology - to manage these challenging patient cases .

“ Our vision is to deliver cutting-edge digital solutions to address challenges in patient management and rising chronic diseases in the region . Through the support of Elev8 . vc , Seeds Capital , Citrine Capital and Tael Partners , we see tremendous opportunity to help healthcare providers cope with the rise in cases and simultaneously , improve patient treatment and outcomes with DARA ®,” he added .

DARA ® draws in real-time , multidimensional patient data : health history , lab tests

This creates a massive attack surface and increases the risk of noncompliance in the event of a data breach ; the average data breach cost $ 7.13 million in 2020 , a 10.5 per cent increase on the year before .

To tackle increasingly malicious cyberattacks , the report concludes that hospitals , pharmaceutical companies , and biotech firms need to double down on their incident response procedures and mitigation efforts . Restricting access , locking down sensitive data , and restricting lateral movement in their environments are the bare minimum measures they must take to protect their data .

and medical images . It delivers a patient-centric visual report , helping doctors counsel patients and allowing patients to understand their laboratory reports and the diseases they live with .

In-built with clinical best practices , guidelines and holistic patient assessments , DARA ® helps doctors leverage knowledge from the global community of healthcare practitioners . Its risk assessment algorithms are compliant with local clinical practice guidelines .

DARA ® has helped healthcare providers in Singapore analyse patient data quickly and effectively , increasing report generation by five times and reducing human error . The solution has delivered over 60 per cent in operational savings and 99 per cent in revenue growth .

Digital health technologies are increasingly in the spotlight since Covid-19 , securing greater investor interest . In 2020 , the Asia Pacific digital health ecosystem closed US $ 6.14 billion in venture capital funding , 25 per cent higher than 2019 . The top funded cluster was medical diagnostics .

Hope for biliary tract cancer patients

Merck , a leading science and technology company , has announced topline data from the Phase II INTR @ PID BTC 047 study evaluating bintrafusp alfa as a monotherapy in the second-line treatment of patients with locally advanced or metastatic biliary tract cancer ( BTC ) who have failed or are intolerant of first-line platinum-based chemotherapy .

In the study of 159 patients , bintrafusp alfa demonstrated single-agent efficacy and durability with a manageable safety profile after more than nine months of follow-up , with an Independent Review Committee ( IRC ) -adjudicated objective response rate ( ORR ) of 10.1 per cent ( 95 per cent CI : 5.9 per cent to 15.8 per cent ) per RECIST 1.1 . Though single-agent activity was observed , the study did not meet the predefined threshold that would have enabled regulatory filing for BTC in the second line setting . The results will be submitted for presentation at an upcoming medical meeting or publication .

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia treatment

TigerGraph , provider of the leading graph analytics platform , announced that the Technical University of Denmark ( DTU ), a leading university in the areas of technical and natural sciences , is using TigerGraph ’ s advanced graph analytics with machine learning and AI techniques to improve the treatment of acute lymphoblastic leukemia .

Researchers at DTU are part of a major project across Denmark and Sweden to map genetic material for everyone with childhood cancer . As part of a larger collaboration through the EU-funded iCOPE ( Interregional Childhood Oncology Precision Medicine Exploration ), the process starts with patient blood tests that through Whole Genome Sequencing ( WGS ) paired with RNA-seq expression data are used to find aberrant expression patterns correlated or possibly caused by enhancer mutations .

The long-term goal of iCOPE is to improve diagnostics , treatment , cure rates , and the overall life situation of children with cancer .

Obesity in adolescents

Novo Nordisk announced that the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use ( CHMP ) under the European Medicines Agency ( EMA ) has recommended that the use of Saxenda ® is expanded for the treatment of obesity in adolescents aged 12 – 17 years .

Over the last 20 years , the global prevalence of obesity in children and adolescents has doubled from 1 in 10 to 1 in 5 , and now more than 124 million children and adolescents live with obesity globally . Adolescents with obesity are more likely to develop weight-related complications like diabetes and heart disease at a younger age , therefore it is important that adolescents with obesity have the necessary support to effectively manage their weight .

If approved , Saxenda ® will be the first EU-approved treatment for obesity in adolescents . Saxenda ® would be approved for the treatment of adolescents with obesity , with an initial initial body mass index ( BMI ) corresponding to ≥30 kg / m2 for adults and a body weight above 60 kg , in combination with healthy eating and increased physical activity .