Menlo Park, Calif.-based Akoya Biosciences Inc. has scooped up $50 million in financing, with an eye toward growing via the expansion of commercial and operational resources and continued product development activities around its platforms for spatial biology. Akoya is relatively young company that was founded in 2015 around the CODEX (CO-Detection by indEXing) platform. That technology was developed in the lab of Garry Nolan, the Rachford and Carlota A. Harris Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Stanford University School of Medicine.

Boston Sci’s Watchman scores well at 50 months for hemorrhagic stroke

The Watchman left atrial appendage device, from Marlborough, Mass.-based Boston Scientific Corp., holds a unique place in the annals of med-tech regulation, but 50-month data from two registries show a lower rate of hemorrhagic stroke than previously reported for the device. The data make a compelling argument for the Watchman, and one clinician involved in the studies told BioWorld MedTech that the market for this device has barely been tapped.

FDA gives 510(k) nod for Moleculight’s wound assessment device

Toronto-based Moleculight Inc. has received U.S. FDA 510(k) clearance for its i:X hand-held fluorescence imaging device for use in detecting bacteria in wounds. The milestone comes a little over a year after the agency granted de novo clearance for the device in August 2018 and lends additional credence to the i:X’s benefits in wound evaluation and management.

Micro-leads raises $10M to develop and test precision spinal cord stimulation

Spinal cord stimulation to treat pain has long been associated with mixed efficacy and substantial side effects such as paresthesia, which is an unpleasant tingly or prickly sensation. Redwood City, Calif.-based Nevro Corp. famously has built a multibillion-dollar business on next-gen pain neurostimulation technology that improves efficacy and reduces side effects. Sommerville, Mass.-based Micro-leads Medical Inc. hopes that it could be next in successfully further refining spinal cord stimulation. It has raised a $10 million financing to back additional development of its HD64 implantable therapy system, as well as to start a clinical trial. The National Institutes of Health contributed to the funding as part of its Helping to End Addiction Long-Term (HEAL) initiative, as did undisclosed private investors. It delivers electrical stimulation to twice as many pain fiber locations on the spinal cord as existing technology, which is expected to offer more localized and side-effect free treatment of chronic low-back pain and focal pains of the trunk and extremities.

DHIT, Tanjo team up to improve health in North Carolina

The non-profit Digital Health Institute for Transformation (DHIT) and Tanjo Inc., a machine learning company, will launch their Community Health Utility Grid (HUG) Initiative in North Carolina in early 2020. The collaboration aims to improve healthcare outcomes for underserved populations in the state by collecting, analyzing, and sharing individual, household and community level health data. Certified health architects from the University of North Carolina Pembroke School of Nursing and College of Health Sciences will use the data to help participants identify solutions and services, Tanjo CEO Richard Boyd told BioWorld MedTech.

Also in the news

410 Medical, Apteryx Imaging, Artidis, Bio2 Technologies, Cellex, Element, Emv Testhaus, Enzyre, Fempulse, Guerbet, Highmark Interactive, Innovheart , Insitro, Moleculight, Nemaura Medical, Nexstim, Orthofix, Petnet Solutions, Revance, Sensor Electronic Technology, Si-Bone, Suvoda, Takeda, Titan Medical, Venus Concept, Zionexa