Stay out of the snow, and in the know, with these recent headlines from Wisconsin’s innovation community.
—Madison-based Exact Sciences (NASDAQ: [[ticker:EXAS]]) said that Cologuard, the company’s stool-based DNA test for colorectal cancer, will be covered as an in-network service for members of the Louisville, KY-based health insurer Humana (NYSE: [[ticker:HUM]]), effective Jan. 1. Cologuard is now covered by health plans in the U.S. that together have more than 153 million members, according to a post on the stock market website Seeking Alpha. Other major insurers that have recently agreed to cover the test include TRICARE, which provides health benefits to 9.4 million current and former U.S. military personnel, and Bloomfield, CT-based Cigna (NYSE: [[ticker:CI]]), which added Cologuard to its medical coverage policy decision in October.
—Fiserv, the Brookfield-based financial services giant, said it has agreed to acquire Online Banking Solutions, an Atlanta-based developer of tools for cash management and digital business banking. Terms of the transaction, which Fiserv (NASDAQ: [[ticker:FISV]]) said is expected to close later this month, were not disclosed in a news release announcing the deal. In January, the company bought the Community Financial Services business of Naples, FL-Based ACI Worldwide (NASDAQ: [[ticker:ACIW]]) in a $200 million cash deal.
—StartingBlock Madison, a center for entrepreneurs in Wisconsin’s capital city, presented a 3D preview of its planned future home before the City of Madison Plan Commission. American Family Insurance, a key backer of the StartingBlock project, and Oregon-based Arch Virtual teamed up to give commissioners simulated street-level views of the building that will house StartingBlock. An employee of American Family helped lead the virtual reality tour by strapping on an Oculus Rift viewer and moving his head and body in various directions. Construction on StartingBlock is scheduled to begin in early 2017.
—Mount Horeb-based OneEvent was named the Madison area’s most innovative company by the Greater Madison Chamber of Commerce. OneEvent is developing software that increases the sensitivity of smoke detectors, and turns them into versatile devices for monitoring commercial and residential buildings. Other finalists for the chamber’s “Nex7 Stage” award included AkitaBox, Bendyworks, and Forward Health Group.
—The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), part of the U.S. Department of Energy, awarded $10 million in funding to Shine Medical Technologies. Janesville-based Shine is working to resume domestic production of molybdenum-99, a vital medical isotope. The company’s method is underpinned by particle accelerator technology. Shine has now received a total of $25 million through the NNSA’s molybdenum-99 program, which the federal agency created in 2010 to spur production of the isotope in the U.S.
—The Wisconsin State Journal profiled two closely related businesses—RevolutionEHR and Rev360—both of which are based in Madison and led by Scott Jens, who is trained as an optometrist. (Rev360 reportedly will become RevolutionEHR’s parent company, even though RevolutionEHR was formed first.) RevolutionEHR is developing electronic health records software to manage data on patients’ eye care, including information on appointments at eye clinics. Rev360, meanwhile, sells supplies and provides billing services to some of RevolutionEHR’s customers, the newspaper reported.
—Cellectar Biosciences (NASDAQ: [[ticker:CLRB]]) announced that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued patent allowances covering method of use for three compounds the Madison-based company is developing. One of them is Cellectar’s lead candidate, CLR 131, which has the potential to treat multiple myeloma and other types of blood cancer. Cellectar said in a news release that the allowance for that compound “covers radiotherapy applications for a broad range of solid tumors,” including ones in
