• InnoMed Technologies (Coconut Creek, Florida) said its is development medical products designed specifically to assist Asian sufferers of apnea. InnoMed’s Nasal-Aire II Petite is a sleep interface that can accommodate the smaller nasal passages characteristic of traditional Asian features. “Since no facial features are the same,” the company says, the interface delivers air directly to the nose via a nasal cannula that comes in various sizes. The Nasal-Aire also comes with ergonomically designed Micro Headgear, featuring an elbow feature that reduces facial pressure points for added comfort.

• Labcyte (Sunnyvale, California) reported introduction of a new member of its acoustic dispensing family, the Echo 520 liquid handler, developed for the medium-throughput laboratory. The 520 system provides high accuracy and precision transfers of a wide variety of solutions for the laboratory that needs to transfer as many as 100,000 solutions per day. The Echo 520 improves data quality by avoiding loss of sample by adsorption onto tips and intermediate plates. This system uses the same acoustic droplet ejection (ADE) technology that has enabled the leading pharmaceutical companies to reduce the volume of their assays while obtaining more reliable data. The rapid ejection of 2.5 nL droplets facilitates the use of 96-, 384-, 1536- and 3456-well assay plates. The Labcyte acoustic droplet ejection technology has applications that include compound management, assays, arraying, particle manufacturing, imaging mass spectrometry and live-cell transfer.

• Millipore (Billerica, Massachusetts) and Gen-Probe (San Diego) reported the launch of the first product from their collaboration to create faster, more sensitive tests for detecting contaminants in pharma and biotech manufacturing processes. It combines Millipore’s sample prep methodologies with Gen-Probe’s nucleic acid technologies to deliver both speed and sensitivity in one microbial screening tool. The MilliProbe system uses real-time transcription-mediated amplification technology to detect targeted microbial contamination within hours compared to the days or weeks usually required to generate results using traditional culture-based technology. Faster detection allows biopharma manufacturers to take corrective action earlier in the production process, which reduces downstream processing risks, optimizes product yields, and improves final product quality, according to the company. Millipore provides bioscience research and biopharmaceutical manufacturing. Gen-Probe makes nucleic acid tests that are used primarily to diagnose human diseases and screen donated human blood.

• Sangart (San Diego) said it has started testing its lead product, Hemospan, in a Phase II clinical study involving chronic critical limb ischemia (CCLI) patients. The study is designed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of Hemospan in patients suffering from CCLI, a condition that results from severely limited blood circulation to the legs. The primary endpoint is tissue oxygenation measured noninvasively. Hemospan is a hemoglobin-based oxygen transport agent designed to serve as an oxygen therapeutic and as an alternative to blood transfusions. A key property of Hemospan is its high oxygen affinity which results in targeted oxygen delivery to tissues at risk of oxygen deprivation. Sangart makes oxygen transport agents.