SPOTLIGHT
Patients in Florida living with complex blood cancers have a new treatment center available.
HCA Florida North Florida Hospital in Gainesville has opened the Sarah Cannon Transplant and Cellular Therapy Program and began to see patients in November.
It’s one of 10 Sarah Cannon Transplant and Cellular Therapy Network programs within HCA Healthcare in the U.S. and the U.K. and the first that is part of HCA Florida Healthcare.
The Sarah Cannon program focuses on patients with leukemia, lymphoma, myeloma or other aggressive blood cancers — especially if they need a transplant or cellular therapy.
The program focuses on diagnosis and treatment along with clinical trial access, with a special emphasis on access to new therapies through early-phase clinical trial programs.
The Sarah Cannon program is launching in phases and will include acute leukemia care, autologous hematopoietic cell transplantation, cellular therapy including chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy (CAR-T) and allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation.
Patients for the center will come from Florida and around the Southeast.
Around the U.S., someone is diagnosed with leukemia, lymphoma or myeloma every three minutes, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society reports.
HEALTH CARE
- Ascension St. Vincent’s is expanding its spinal and brain surgery care at Ascension St. Vincent’s Clay County to include spine surgery, chronic pain surgery, craniotomy for tumor resection and stereotactic radiosurgery.
- Jacksonville higher education and health leaders have created the Women’s Health Innovation Network, focused on using technology and innovation to improve women’s health. The efforts include an incubator and accelerator for innovators to create products and services that can help solve health issues mainly or solely affecting women.
- Acadia Healthcare of Brentwood, Tenn., will build a $48-million, 100,000-sq.-ft. behavioral hospital in St. Augustine. The company develops and operates behavioral health facilities across the U.
CREDIT UNIONS
- VyStar Credit Union was ordered by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to reimburse customers affected by the rollout of an online banking platform in 2022 that made it difficult to perform basic banking functions. VyStar also was ordered to pay $1.5 million to the CFPB’s victims relief fund.
PORTS
- The Ocean Network Express is adding JaxPort to its East Coast 2 container service starting this month. The weekly service uses a fleet of 13,500 container vessels and connects JaxPort with five ports in Asia.
- The New York-based alternative investment firm Stonepeak has acquired 1.8 million square feet of logistics assets at nine locations around Jacksonville, all located near JaxPort.
BEVERAGES
- Coke Florida has opened a $10-million, 28,000-sq.-ft. Ocala Sales and Distribution Center. The center will serve customers in Marion, Sumter, Citrus, Hernando and Lake counties and deliver more than 2 million units of Coke products each year.
LAYOFFS
- Anchor Glass will close its manufacturing facility in Jacksonville this month, eliminating 144 jobs. It is one of six bottlemaking plants the company operates but the only glass production facility in Florida.
HOMEBUILDING
- Perry Homes of Houston has acquired Jacksonville’s Master-Craft Builder Group. The acquisition is part of the company’s newer focus to include homebuilding outside of Texas and will include building in Jacksonville, Orlando, Southwest Florida and Tampa.
TRANSPORTATION
- Allegiant Airlines will expand its service from Jacksonville International Airport starting in May. New nonstop flights from JAX will be available to Akron-Canton Airport, Des Moines International Airport, and Grand Rapids Gerald R. Ford International Airport.
SMALL BUSINESS
- The Small Business Development Center at the University of North Florida has opened an office in downtown Jacksonville.
TRAINING
- St. Johns County has begun work on a $21-million regional workforce development educational campus in Hastings in partnership with its school district, First Coast Technical College, the St. Johns County Chamber of Commerce, the U.S. Economic Development Administration, and local businesses.