Branch Name Change Announced by Greater Brandywine YMCA

The YMCA of Greater Brandywine has announced that their Oscar Lasko Youth Program Center in downtown West Chester will change its name to Oscar Lasko YMCA and Childcare Center, effective immediately.

The newly renamed center also has a new feature that started on January 4th. The Child Watch program will allow parents and caregivers of children from 6 weeks to 11 years old to work out, while supervised and fun care is provided for their children for up to two hours.

“While we serve thousands of youth each month, this facility is a full-service YMCA, with something for the whole family to enjoy. It just seemed more appropriate to give it full YMCA status,” said Denise Day, CEO of the YMCA of Greater Brandywine. “There are two gyms, a fitness center, a gymnastics center, racquetball courts and beautiful locker rooms.”

Genesis Sells 18 Vintage Park Assisted Living Facilities for Over $54 Million

Genesis HealthCare has announced the sale of 18 Vintage Park assisted living facilities in Kansas that were acquired as part of the company’s merger last year with Skilled Healthcare. The move was made in order to pay down debt and focus on its core business of over 500 skilled nursing facilities and senior living communities in 34 states across the country.

The majority of the proceeds will be used to repay the Kennett Square based company’s $54.2 million real estate bridge loan from Welltower, with the remainder for other debt repayment. Neither the final amount of the deal nor the buyer has been disclosed.

“Assisted living has never been our core competency and we believe we can better allocate the capital by delivering our balance sheet,” said George V. Hager Jr., CEO of Genesis.

Fibrocell and Intrexon Team Up to Fight Arthritis

Exton based Fibrocell Science and Intrexon have expanded their collaboration agreement to jointly develop genetically-modified fibroblasts intended for treatment of arthritis and other chronic inflammatory and degenerative joint diseases.

According terms of the expanded agreement, Fibrocell will pay Intrexon $10 million in cash as a technology access fee as well as reimbursement for all costs relating to research and development. In addition, the agreement covers regulatory and commercial milestone payments of up to $52.5 million for two potential new products, as well as