TUE AM News: Leo Cancer Care announces deal with treatment center in Italy; JFC member objects to latest DHS opioid settlement funds plan

April 23, 2024

— Middleton-based Leo Cancer Care has agreed to install its radiotherapy positioning device at an advanced cancer treatment facility in Italy.

The company yesterday announced its deal with the National Center for Oncological Hadrontherapy in Pavia, Italy. Under the agreement, the Italian center will acquire one of Leo Cancer Care’s Marie upright patient positioning systems combined with a vertical medical scanner, according to the release.

The device will be aligned with an existing fixed radiation beam, rotating patients in an upright position to enable treatment from various angles. Named after pioneering radioactivity researcher Marie Curie, the machine is designed to keep patient organs in “a more natural” upright position during treatment, rather than the typical horizontal orientation.

The National Center for Oncological Hadrontherapy — or CNAO, based on its Italian name — is a government-funded treatment and research institution. As one of the most advanced oncology centers in the world, it will be the first to use Leo Cancer Care’s system for carbon ion radiotherapy, according to the release.

Leo Cancer Care CEO Stephen Towe explains carbon ion therapy is “even more precisely targeted” than another cancer treatment method called proton therapy, which delivers accurate doses of radiation to patients’ tumors with little impact on healthy tissues.

“If proton therapy is the gold standard, then carbon ion is platinum, so the centre is among the top echelons of radiation therapy delivery,” he said in a statement. “This is a tremendous step for our company as the goal has always been to enable the best form of treatments for patients globally.”

Carbon ion treatment systems are only available at four sites in Europe and a “limited number” in Asia, according to Leo Cancer Care. One is currently under construction in the United States, but the technology isn’t currently widely used because of the large size and cost required for installing it.

Towe says Leo Cancer Care’s device has a smaller footprint as it rotates the patient rather than requiring the installation of larger rotating machinery needed to move the treatment beam around the patient. This enables fixed-beam systems to be used for treating patients from multiple angles.

CNAO President and Prof. Gianluca Vago says the Marie device “represents an important part” of the center’s expansion plans as it will replace positioning and verification systems in an existing treatment room.

“With Marie our clinicians will have also the possibility to apply state of the art static and arc therapy on a fixed beamline, as well as develop new protocols for non oncological applications of particle beams, such as ventricular arrhythmia treatments,” he said, referring to irregular heartbeats.

Leo Cancer Care says it’s in the process of obtaining regulatory clearance for its system in Europe. Financial terms of its agreement with CNAO were not disclosed.

See the release and see more on Leo Cancer Care’s technology.

— A member of the GOP-run Joint Finance Committee has objected to the Evers’ administration’s plan to dedicate $36 million in opioid settlement funds to prevention, harm reduction, treatment and recovery efforts during fiscal year 2025.

The committee co-chairs yesterday notified the Department of Health Services of the anonymous objection. The committee will now have to meet on the proposed plan and can approve it as it, make changes to reject it outright.

It is the third time a member of the committee has objected to the plan DHS submitted to spend the money.

Rep. Mark Born, R-Beaver Dam, and Sen. Howard Marklein, R-Spring Green, didn’t include details in their letter of what prompted the latest objection.

The plan, unveiled earlier this month, includes: $6 million for tribal nations in Wisconsin; $5 million for community, education and after-school prevention; $5 million for family support and resource centers; another $5 million for peer support in opioid treatment programs; $3.5 million for overdose reversal drug naloxone; $1 million for fentanyl test strips, and more.

The settlement funds come from an agreement with pharmaceutical distributors Cardinal, McKesson and AmerisourceBergen as well as Johnson & Johnson. Payments from the three distributors will continue for another 14 years, while J&J payments will continue for another seven years, according to today’s release. DHS notes the state will also begin getting funds this year from settlements with Teva, Allergan, Walmart, Walgreens and CVS.

Top headlines from the Health Care Report…

— Ahead of Vice President Kamala Harris’ official stop in Wisconsin, the White House shared details on a new federal rule requiring minimum staffing at nursing homes that receive federal funding and another seeking to boost the pay of those who care for the elderly in their homes.

For more of the most relevant health care news, reports on groundbreaking research in Wisconsin, links to top stories and more, sign up today for the free daily Health Care Report from WisPolitics and WisBusiness.com.

Sign up here.

— The Greater Madison Chamber of Commerce this summer is rolling out new resources for businesses including marketing materials aimed at supporting talent recruitment.

The chamber announced these plans earlier this month at its 10th annual Icebreaker event, attended by around 850 people including business and community leaders.

In an interview yesterday, Chamber President Zach Brandon said the new resources are related to last year’s announcement of an “umbrella brand” around marketing, talent recruitment and economic development called “Be Madison.”

“A group of entrepreneurs created this hashtag called Be Madison, and the idea was to show Madison to the world through the eyes of the people who live here … and so we’re building on what they started and expanding that,” he said.

Brandon says the BeMadison.com website will serve as an online hub for much of what the chamber is rolling out this summer, with a launch date tentatively planned for June. That includes a new service called the Madison Pitch, giving certain companies access to the chamber’s slides and data used to recruit companies and talent to the greater Madison area.

“They can sort of pick and choose what they need for tailor-made promotion, whether that’s you’re recruiting companies or talent, or investors, and then they can download that and have custom-made decks,” he said.

The chamber is also creating a new video that companies seeking talent can embed in their websites, which will offer tracking services “to identify who’s coming to their site, where are they coming from, and how long to they stay” along with more precise engagement metrics.

And the chamber is planning another site called Make Madison focused on fostering a sense of belonging and boosting its diversity, equity and inclusion work.

“We have multiple video vignettes that are coming out where we’re asking both entrepreneurs of color and senior executives, why Madison? And so people hear validators with authentic voices, who have made Madison the place to make a life, make a career, make a difference,” Brandon said.

Meanwhile, the latest iteration of the chamber’s virtual reality is “all but complete,” Brandon noted. It’s currently being tested by UW-Madison’s football program for recruiting, and the chamber plans to allow more companies to use version 2.0 of the VR platform once it’s officially launched. The original version of the system was mainly used by large employers in the region, such as Exact Sciences, American Family Insurance, Land’s End, Madison Gas & Electric and others.

“We have elevated the technology, all developed here in Wisconsin … to a level that is mind-blowing,” he said, adding the chamber wants to be “on the cutting edge of how talent recruitment of the future will look like.”

— Gov. Tony Evers to celebrate Earth Day signed an executive order to boost the state’s Trillion Trees Pledge to 100 million trees by the end of 2030.

The state initially sought to plant 75 million trees by 2030 under the Trillion Tree Pledge Evers signed in 2021. So far, 32 million trees have been planted toward the goal.

Evers yesterday signed the latest order alongside cabinet members and staff at Governor Nelson State Park, named in honor of the former Dem governor and U.S. Sen. Gaylord Nelson. Nelson founded Earth Day in 1970.

The group also planted trees as part of the Department of Natural Resources’ plan to plant approximately 2,200 seedlings at the park.

“Conserving and growing our forests is critical to protecting our planet and our environment and allows us to better support our communities, our economy, and our workforce,” Evers said in a statement. “And I’m proud my administration and I are kicking off our continued work toward this important goal by planting trees at Governor Nelson State Park on Earth Day.”

See the release.

— Dane County is the first county in the nation to receive Platinum designation from national solar energy advocacy group SolSmart, according to a recent release.

The Madison-based Capital Area Regional Planning Commission yesterday announced it had received SolSmart’s Bronze-level recognition, acknowledging its efforts to encourage solar energy development in the greater Madison region.

CARPC Executive Director Jason Valerius says the organization is “thrilled” to be recognized by SolSmart, which is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Energy Technologies Office.

“But we are even more excited to see Dane County and local communities, including McFarland, Mount Horeb, Middleton, and Sun Prairie, receive recognition,” he said in a statement. “These communities are leaders in our ongoing transition to renewable energy sources and we’re happy to support their leadership.”

While SolSmart offers free technical help and resources to drive solar development, local governments can be designated by the program by meeting certain criteria “based on national best practices for building solar-friendly communities,” the release shows.

The framework includes categories such as permitting and inspection, planning and zoning, government operations, community management and market development, according to SolSmart’s website.

See more in the release.

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